


En garde! Prêtes? Allez!

by AlgernonInWonderland



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Did I already say Fluff?, F/F, Fashion Design, Fencing, Flawed characters, Fluff, Identity Reveal, Implied/Referenced Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Racism, Now an AU in which Kagami isn't a one-dimensional boring plot device, Paris (City), Revolutionary Girlfriends Marinette and Kagami, Slice of Life (Kind of), Slow Burn, Superhero Shenanigans, Sword Lesbian, a little Angst too
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-26 19:22:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 46,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14408868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlgernonInWonderland/pseuds/AlgernonInWonderland
Summary: In which Kagami Tsurugi moves to Paris, finally meets Marinette Dupain-Cheng and slowly but surely falls in love with her. And also, something about a black cat and a ladybug.New chapters up when they are ready and when I feel like it





	1. Duel 1 : It's Nice to Finally Meet You

There was apprehension in her gesture and she hesitated in front of the mahogany door for quite a long time. Mother hadn’t answered the phone, and she would be disappointed. She wished she didn’t have to turn the round doorknob, she wished she had won and that the entire Riposte incident hadn’t happened, not that she could remember it completely anyway. Standing around in the lobby wouldn’t do her any good, she reflected. Still, she wasn’t ready to feel Mother’s disappointed look on her — never a glare, never a raised voice, she never yelled at her.

 

She guessed she wouldn’t live in Paris, then, and correcting that Wikipedia entry herself had been nothing but the foolish dream of a teenager. Maybe they would even move back to her Grandfather’s to intensify her training? She couldn’t just stay there doing nothing, it wasn’t her, she was better than this, it was just a stupid door to open. Besides, people looked at her as if she had grown a second head. She guessed it was the red fencing gear and the sabre, or the showy ring she didn’t even enjoy wearing, one of her mother’s whims. Open that door, you are fifteen, not four, she told herself. She gulped slowly. She braced herself for what was expecting her.

 

“ _Kagami, M. D’Argencourt and I decided to allow you a rematch tomorrow!_ ” Itsuko Tsurugi spoke clearly from across the spacious hotel suite as the door opened and her daughter walked in. Hotel Ekta had been a good choice, she thought to herself. “ _You should take a warm bath_.”

 

It had taken one heated phone call from Armand D’Argencourt himself, retired Olympic champion Armand D'Argencourt, swordsman extraordinaire Armand D’Argencourt for her to change her mind. The match that took place during the open day had not gone as planned, he explained in a doleful voice, he had been overenthusiastic about it and the referee hadn’t done their job properly. At least, it was the version he gave Itsuko, but she guessed that there was more to it than what he had let out. At least that explained many things. In fact, it all made sense now, there was no way her own daughter could have lost in a fair match, if Kagami’s message was to be believed. Armand’s student were good, he ran the best fencing academy for young people in Paris after all, but there was no way her Kagami could have been defeated by one of his students.

 

They would have to cancel the flight they had booked for the next day but that was simply one detail in all the organizing she would have to do when Kagami won. After all, her daughter hadn’t learned French, English and Italian for nothing. In September, she would be schooled in France. She would let her choose which lycée she wanted to go to. Staying in France would not be a problem, and finding a job wouldn’t be overly complicated, wasn’t she a former world champion herself? The door closed.

 

“ _Mother, I..._ ” Kagami hadn’t expected that. Wouldn’t she want to discuss the whole akuma incident that had occurred? But it seemed that her mother hadn’t connected the dots between Riposte and Kagami, or that she cared about fencing before anything else. She was glad that she hadn’t picked up her phone. When she had told Adrien about that decisive match, it had been very foolish of her. She hadn’t wanted to disappoint the boy who could become a newfound friend, he had been a worthy opponent. Telling him that she would like to have a rematch against him at all and that it would happen someday had been risky, and a half-lie. The few times when she hadn’t finished first in a competition, her mother had sounded very disappointed, as though she had brought dishonour to the family. Itsuko Tsurugi had never allowed second chances, after all, there was no such thing as second chances, or so Grandfather had told her, but she wouldn’t let this opportunity slip away from her. “ _Thank you. I won’t disappoint you this time._ ”

 

Kagami was in a pensive mood as her mother ran her a bath. Things would be very different in September if she won, and she knew that with Adrien’s sprained ankle, her rematch wouldn’t be happening before a long time. The fencer she would have to face would certainly be less proficient than Adrien was. She would win, she didn’t doubt that. And then she’d go to school in France, the first year of lycée. She would celebrate her sixteenth birthday in France and complete her secondary education there. She would miss Tokyo and the few friends she had there. She would make new friends in Paris, at least she hoped so. Marinette sounded like a nice person, Kagami genuinely wanted to meet her someday, or rather wouldn’t mind meeting her, but she had mostly said that because it was what was expected from her. Adrien didn’t seem to realize his feelings for her, but he might just be an unawarely lovesick teenager, she told herself. After all, he could be completely wrong about her.

 

She should stop assuming things about people she barely knew, she berated herself as she fumbled through her suitcase for a new change of clothes. Yes, this Marinette had sounded nice enough, not that Kagami had had a real conversation with her. She had said that she wanted to meet her... Had that been foolish too? She didn’t like this uncertainty. And then there was Ladybug, who had saved her and Kagami didn’t know what do make of it. It had been gratefulness and fascination. What had happened had been incredible and she hadn’t processed it completely yet. She would need to give it more thought but not immediately.

 

“ _Your bath is ready,_ ” Mrs Tsurugi called. “ _You should change before we go out for dinner, I don’t think that lamé of yours will do._ ”

 

“Of course, mum,” Kagami said, switching from Japanese to French as she shut the suite’s bathroom door behind her. Hadn’t her mother seen what she was carrying in her arms? She knew it perfectly well, dining in her present attire would be quite a faux pas. Mother was testing her. She switched the radio on — France Musique was a channel she would listen to quite often in the near future, she decided. She removed her make-up first, then she began to disrobe, the red lamé dropping on the tiled floor of the hotel bathroom. She stole a glance at her shape in the mirror — not too bad, not too bad at all, she thought — before she dipped her toe in the water. It was quite warm but just the right temperature for her.

She slowly sat down in the bath. It felt as though she was slowly melting in the hot water, her shoulders relaxed and her mind was at peace. It was nice, this warmth and nothing but that, much better than the usual showers in changing rooms after competitions. She began washing herself, she missed her regular shampoo and conditionner. The water was slowly getting lukewarm and she didn’t want wrinkled fingertips. Bless whoever had designed bathrobes this confortable and soft, she mused as the fabric brushed against her skin, she added it to her list of things to buy in Paris. She dressed herself and winced. She had chosen her clothes hastily when she had packed her stuff. She guessed the high-waisted blue jeans and white and green striped t-shirt one size too big for her would have to do, Mother had no say in that matter, she thought as she dried her hair. Mother always tried to be chic all the time and to please everyone. Although Kagami liked to be elegant, she wasn’t like her.

 

The car, a courtesy of the hotel Kagami had first believed, though it was truly far from free, drove them to the restaurant her mother had reserved a table in. And then came the dinner in itself, uneventful if a little tense, even more than the ride. It wasn’t that Itsuko Tsurugi was cold around her daughter per say. Or was she? She showed her affection in other ways than many, and they didn’t talk much. That was besides the point. Either way, the food wasn’t half bad, the cuttlefish ink pasta were cooked al dente and while Kagami had managed to avoid eating seafood, her mother enjoyed the scallops that came with the dish. Being quiet and compliant right now, Kagami thought, was not the same as being submissive. Simply, there were times when she could raise her voice and others when it wall simply uncalled for.

 

And she couldn't really complain all that much. She had started to earn a little more freedom with each year, and disobeying Mother wasn't as hard as it used to be, at least they could. She wished she didn’t care much for what Father had to say, she wished that they could have real, not one-sided conversations. Trying to get his approval was tiring. In Paris, she hoped she would find more independence, outside of fencing, of course. Mother had planned almost everything for her until now, but would that change here? Mother had behaved in an unusual fashion since they had landed France, and it wasn’t only the jet-lag. In spite of all of this, the question still seemed to come out of nowhere.

 

“Have you already chosen the lycée you would like to go to?” Itsuko Tsurugi simply asked in choppy French, a question Kagami hadn’t expected at all. “We have a few weeks to fill the forms, but I wondered if you had already made up your mind.”

 

“Well I...” Kagami hesitated. “Can I give you an answer once I’ve won? I’m a little too focused on tomorrow’s match, I want to give my best performance. Monsieur D’Argencourt is an old friend of yours, isn’t he?” She carried her glass of water to her lips. Did that mean that she would have her word to say, or had she misheard her because she was too exhausted? “I wouldn’t want him to think any less of the Tsurugis,” she added once she had put the now empty glass down to reassure her mother. She did want to win, it was what her strenuous training had been for, and the thought didn’t leave her as she slowly drifted to sleep in pajamas she had borrowed her mother.

 

Her alarm went off about fifteen hours later but she managed to wake up right away. The hotel room was very quiet, her mother nowhere to be found, but she had scribbled a note saying that she was taking care of the visas and apartment matters. She had left her a doggy bag too; apparently, Kagami had missed breakfast and lunch. That was quite a lot of sleep, something she usually couldn’t get during the week. These few days in France, Kagami wrote in her travel journal, felt like odd holidays under pressure, but not in the way she had originally planned that it would have happened like that. She sketched a small ladybug and closed the journal as she stretched herself.

 

Still about two hours to go before the rematch, according to the note. Kagami did not laze around. A quick shower would do this time, she would wear her fencing equipment once she got there. The day before, she had planned her dramatic entrance in Collège Françoise Dupont to intimidate as many students and candidates as she could, but there would be no one to impress this time, only the student M. D’Argencourt had selected to fight her and probably M. D’Argencourt himself as a referee. Today, she noted, was Saturday which meant no school, the D’Argencourt fencing academy was usually closed. She would have to prove herself worthy in the eyes of the fencing students in September, she guessed as she slowly prepared her things in a backpack. According to her phone — no notifications whatsoever, but she was used to it — it was already two in the afternoon. Plenty of time, yet it had already begun trickling. There was no need to run, at least not yet.

 

 

Marinette had never run so fast in her entire life, at least as her civilian self, but she had to make it in time. Would the door still be open? She dodged pedestrians and one or two cars, her earphones blaring an energetic Jagged Stone song. Usually, she would have enjoyed a simple stroll in the street and the breeze of early June, but not today. In two minutes, it would begin and she didn’t want to miss it. She hadn’t completely lied when she had told Adrien that she was interested in fencing, also she had yet to grasp the subtleties of it at all, and se couldn’t say that it was the case. But it wasn’t the only reason why she had chosen to watch the match. She had to apologize, and she wanted to make sure that everything was alright with Kagami too.

 

Tikki might or might not have played a role in this decision. The two of them shouldn’t have eavesdropped on the conversation, she knew it. Adrien saw her as a friend and as a friend only and she would have rather done without that knowledge. But Kagami had said that she was looking forward to meeting her too. So even if it wasn’t Adrien facing her, Marinette felt like she had to be there. And she genuinely wanted to watch the match. There was the great wooden door, not closed, and she rushed inside. She wasn’t late! The piste — that was how they called the fencing area, that was one thing she was completely sure about— was still where they had left it the day before, M. D’Argencourt was in position, a sabreur she didn’t know was clipping his body cord to his lamé and flailing the air with his sabre in intricate movements, which he punctuated with war-like grunts. Adrien would never do that, she thought. This boy was nothing but a show-off, she thought as she waved at the fencing master.

 

“M. D’Argencourt, is it OK with you if I watch the match?” she asked between huffed breaths.

 

“Well, I mean, that is unexpected but of course! I mean, two’s a crowd, as they say!” the master swordsman laughed in a boisterous and quite cartoonesque way. “So,” he whispered to her calmly once his fit of laughter had ended, “it seems that you’re quite interested in my fencing academy. Or is it the fencers? You’ll have to wait until next year, if you want to enter, I fear...” He pointed discretely at the sabreur and whispered, even more softly than before, “I fear young Vincent here doesn’t stand a single chance against the Tsurugi heir. I’m positive Kagami will make short work of him. But here she finally comes!”

 

What struck Marinette straight away was how Kagami Tsurugi oozed with confidence, not arrogance, when she stepped in the courtyard. The day before, she had seemed brash, her bravado intimidating enough, and Marinette guessed that it must have been the other girl’s intention, but then it had been tainted with a hint of nervousness, as if Kagami’s entire life depended on the outcome of her match against Adrien. She didn’t seem nearly as tense this time and it made her look even more powerful. The way she walked with an air of pride, as if she were nobility simply claiming a throne she rightfully owned, seemed natural, as if she was born for this. No, not born for it, but moulded for it after years of work and discipline. She was wearing her lamé again, as if it had always been a second skin to her, it looked like it had been custom-made for her and it probably was, now that Marinette thought of it, just like her sabre.

 

Kagami’s determined demeanour was almost more intimidating without her fencing mask on. She looked regal, and, Marinette thought, very pretty. She had only watched her from a distance before, and as Ladybug she had been all business, making sure that the de-akumatized Kagami had been alright, but she couldn’t not see it now. The freckles that adorned her fair complexion, her high cheekbones, her slightly upturned nose, her gorgeous amber eyes. She was almost jealous of Kagami’s perfectly coiffed bob of charcoal hair, darker than Marinette’s... She shouldn’t have let her mind wander in that direction, Marinette berated herself, it wasn’t what she was here for in the first place.

 

Kagami’s eyes widened when she saw who was chatting with M. D’Argencourt. She had only caught a glimpse of Marinette — it was her, she was sure of that— when she was the default referee, quite a stressful job for an amateur. Was she there to watch her win? Was it to apologize? Her victory was what mattered most, she would focus on Adrien’s pretty “friend” once she was done with her opponent. Sabre fencing comes first and everything else second to that, she reminded herself, although it would be an easy match, she knew it as soon as she looked at her adversary, a boy that looked a little older than her, his short gelled brown hair combed back. His lips were stretched in a confident smirk, almost a grimace and disdain flickered in his eyes when he took notice of Kagami, followed by a scowl. Oh, she would wipe this smile off his face in a matter of minutes.

 

Kagami halted once she got to the piste and clipped her body cord to her own lamé. She almost wished she had someone more competent to fence against, someone like Adrien and as serious as him. Judging by her opponent’s over-relaxed shoulders, he had thought that she would be an easy fight, it took only a glance to understand that. She was not amused and disdain glinted in her eyes, a small scowl darkening her features. Her moment of grace was gone. Did he think it would be easier because she was a girl and younger than him? Didn’t he know who she was and what she had done? She glanced back at Marinette, she would greet her later, she thought as M. D’Argencourt joined the two fencers.

 

“Mademoiselle Tsurugi, I am still so very sorry for yesterday, it was foolish and uncalled for. I should not have allowed that unhooked duel but that was beautiful sabre work,” he said, running his hand over his receding hairline. He took a step back and watched the competitors carefully as they tested their sabres, making sure that the material was functioning properly, unsurprisingly, it was. “Vincent, Mademoiselle, let us start this bout, shall we?”

 

Eight valid hits, Marinette thought as Kagami and Vincent put their fencing masks on and saluted each other, before they turned to their referee and saluted him, with more respect in the gesture this time. She could only agree with the master swordsman, Vincent wouldn’t stand a chance.

 

“En garde!” Armand D’Argencourt’s voice echoed in the empty courtyard. There it was, Kagami thought as she breathed in and out slowly. The perfect stance for the likes of this opponent, slightly flashy, but exactly what she needed. She was ready to let him feint then lunge at her, and then the hit would be hers. He wasn’t worth the effort but she wanted to be impressive. She could see, feel everything around her, the afternoon sun, Marinette’s look, the weight of her lamé and the plastron underneath, the slight brushing sound of Vincent’s breeches.

 

“Êtes-vous prêts?”

 

Of course she was ready. The world shrank in the blink of an eye, until it was only the courtyard, the piste, her opponent and herself, the residual presence of the referee and the sole spectator. It was like the few seconds before a chess match and she already knew Vincent’s every moves, his overture, the every details of this game. With a more proficient fencer, things would have been different, more challenging, something more exciting than that. But she had to do it and she would, by the book, though she’d allow herself a few variations. Kagami’s mind raced and time began to stretch to the point of rupture. It elapsed slowly, and all she needed was one word to trigger it all.

 

“Allez!”

 

From Marinette’s perspective, it happened in a blur of motion and sound and then the scoring box lit up red. She would have lied if she said she had understood what had happened but there were two things she was sure about. The first one, that she didn’t want to miss any of it. The second... “Touche,” M. D’Argencourt said, trying to conceal the amazement in his voice and doing a pretty bad job at it. Marinette herself didn’t bother trying to hide how impressed she was. What he had just witnessed, though, was quite different from what an untrained eye could have perceived. It had happened fast, almost too fast for him and he knew that Itsuko had not exaggerated her daughter’s swordsmanship. Vincent’s feint and lunge had been too unrefined, they failed instantly when his sabre met Kagami’s.

 

The girl had executed a perfect yet effortless stop-hit, and the hit was hers. Her opponent shifted from one feet to the other. The level difference wasn’t hard to tell, the master thought. He couldn’t wait to train her. Kagami was even less amused than before, but stayed focused nonetheless. This was no challenge at all. How she wished Adrien hadn’t hurt his leg. She stole a glance at Marinette, the girl seemed quite absorbed in the match. Knowing that made Kagami repress a smile. It gave her a newfound motivation. She was going to impress Marinette even more with her next hits.

 

Exactly one minute and forty three seconds later, Vincent threw his sabre on the ground and refused to shake Kagami’s hand. He slouched and stomped off the piste in a rage, his nostrils flaring with anger. Marinette was immediately on the lookout for any suspicious-looking butterfly but she could only understand the boy’s frustration. Having lost like that must have felt quite humiliating for someone as arrogant as him. Kagami had been more precise and inventive with every new hit, never twice the same. Her compound attacks were unparalleled and when she had the right-of-way to start with, her assaults didn’t last for long, as Vincent’s defence let any and all strikes through.

 

Watching her fight Adrien once more would be interesting to say the least, now that the pressure of entering the fencing academy, or not, was off her shoulders. Come to think of it, it must have been even more tense for Kagami and as the girl in the red lamé took off her fencing mask, she heaved a sigh of relief. She shook her head so that she wouldn’t have a case of helmet hair, all signs of tension vanished from her face and replaced with determination as she shook hand with M. D’Argencourt and started talking excitedly with him. Maybe she should wait for Kagami to refresh herself and change into her civilian clothes before she talks to her, Marinette reflected, and it seemed that the other girl had the exact same thing in mind as Kagami made her way to the changing rooms after she mouthed Marinette an apologetic “not now”.

 

Kagami rushed in the changing room, and grabbed her phone to call Mother, but at the last moment, she refrained from pressing the icon. Would she be disturbing her in the middle of some important business? A simple text would do instead, she thought, and she typed one. The showers were nowhere near as confortable as the bath in the hotel, she thought and she made it as fast as she could. The fight wasn’t even that draining, when she compared it to the one that happened the day before, with the addition of Riposte. She scrubbed herself rapidly and dried herself with a borrowed hotel towel.

 

She was not postponing the inevitable, she told herself as she winced at her choice of clothes once more, she was not putting off her meeting with Marinette. She would have to ask where she had bought her summer dress, she thought. Finally, she gathered her fencing gearin the suitcase she had bought for the occasion and cast a last look at the changing room. She would spend quite some time there in a little more than two months, after the summer holidays, unless things changed for the D’Argencourt fencing academy. And with Mother’s tendency to overdo things, chances were they would. She finally exited the room with apprehension but stopped and strained her ears She could hear a voice although she couldn’t make out the words. Someone was talking outside.

 

“Hey, congratulations for your victory you were really impressive and I’m really sorry for yesterday and ugh, that sounded even worse than before,” Marinette said to no one in particular, her back turned to the changing room as she waited the other girl to come out. She didn’t want to find herself with nothing to say in front of Kagami. “Hey, I’m sorry for my terrible refereeing yesterday, it was really bad and I couldn’t see much so the hit was probably yours, anyway, your victory was really something special, you truly are an impressive fencer,” she continued in a hushed voice. She did not notice Kagami creeping behind her.

 

“Apologies accepted, and I’m glad that you think so,” Kagami said with a hint of amusement in her voice. Marinette turned around faster than she had expected with an alert look on her face. The expression faltered and was replaced with a small blush when she saw who it was that had almost startled her. How had she not noticed earlier how cute Marinette Dupain-Cheng was, Kagami thought to herself. Why did things have to start this awkwardly between the two of them? At least, it wasn’t like the chewing-gum incident, Marinette told herself.

 

“You heard everything, didn’t you?” Marinette asked mortified and the small smirk that bloomed on Kagami’s lips was enough of an answer, though it did not feel insulting like when Chloé smirked at... Most people like she did most of the time, really. “Well then,” she smiled to herself before she turned to Kagami, “I guess there’s no need to introduce myself but anyway... I’m Marinette Dupain-Cheng, it’s nice to meet you!”

 

“Kagami Tsurugi, the feeling is mutual,” she said and on an impulse, she outstretched her hand for Marinette to shake. The feel of Marinette’s hand brushing against hers was odd, not the same as when it had been Adrien’s, but she dismissed the observation quickly. It would take her some time to get used to the whole shaking-hands-without-gloves-in-a-casual-way, she thought, but at least it wasn’t as if Marinette had kissed her on the cheeks like she had seen so many people do to greet one another. That, she thought, was a French custom she would rather stay away from for as long as she could.

 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you in Françoise Dupont...” Marinette said. Yes, she gave herself an imaginary thumbs up, that had to be a good conversation starter. “What collège do you go to? Or are you already in lycée?” Great. Not embarrassing at all. Congratulations Marinette. But the other girl didn’t seem to find it too awkward.

 

“I’ll only go to lycée next year, just like you, now that I got in the D’Argencourt fencing academy” Kagami said, “it will be my first year in France!” Did that sound too enthusiastic?

 

Marinette’s “Well... Welcome to France, I guess!” seemed to say otherwise. And so, Kagami continued. “So far I still go to the Lycée International de Tokyo because my mother wanted me to but...” She stopped when she saw the quizzical look on Marinette’s face. “They call it lycée but it does everything from nursery school to secondary school, it doesn’t really make any sense. And I haven’t chosen which lycée I want to go to yet... Where will you go in September?”

 

“I’ll go to the lycée Carnot, and so will most of the people from Françoise Dupont, so unless his Father disagrees about it, it means Adrien too,” Marinette said, hoping that she wasn’t talking too much or drowning Kagami in useless information but she looked quite interested — was it because of Adrien, she wondered— so she continued. “I guess you don’t know many people here yet. So...” Her eyes looked up at the sky and Kagami thought that something interesting had just happened above her, but all there was was the sun.

 

One second, Kagami’s phone was inside one of her trouser pockets (it had taken her hours to find blue jeans with actual pockets big enough to fit a phone but it had been worth the search), the next it somehow appeared in Marinette’s hand and the girl’s blue eyes sparkled with excitation before she noticed what she had just done and the expression fell apart altogether. Inside Marinette’s bag, Tikki face-palmed, or did the equivalent gesture for a creature with no actual palms. Marinette herself winced. It seemed that old habits died hard, especially the embarrassing ones. Kagami was too amazed to be mad at Marinette, and instead of yelling at her like anyone else would normally have, she simply asked her, “How? Why? Can you teach me?”

 

“I’m sorry, it tends to happen sometimes... When you were looking at the sky, that’s when it happened, that’s the trick, making people look in the wrong direction, just like magicians do but it’s not very important and I swear I meant to ask you, I wanted to add my number so that you could text me if you had any questions or just wanted to talk or just, I don’t know, if you go to a different lycée or whatever,”Marinette rambled. There was that spark of amusement in Kagami’s eyes again. “Do you want it back immediately?”

 

“No, please, add your number, I’d really wanna—” Kagami didn’t finish her sentence, afraid that it would come out wrong. “The code is 2-5-8-3, and no that’s not a picture of my cat, it’s my grandmother’s,” she almost laughed.

 

A few seconds and a selfie later, Marinette handed back the phone to her rightful owner just as a red car drove by. It was the cue for Kagami to leave, and was it wrong that she wanted to stay there a little longer to chat with Marinette? She saw why Adrien liked her now, and she genuinely wanted to get to know her better. The summer breeze blew softly as they finally exited collège Françoise Dupont, and how they secretly wished they could enjoy a carefree stroll around the city together. But Kagami had to leave, she knew that, Mother was probably waiting for her in the car. And so, she muttered a small goodbye, not quite meeting the blue eyes that looked at her worriedly. She hadn’t wanted this encounter to end that way, she wasn’t good with goodbyes.

 

But Marinette didn’t seem to mind and gave her an understanding smile instead. She squeezed Kagami’s shoulder softly, a silent encouragement and mouthed a small goodbye herself. It made things easier. not that things could possibly go wrong with her mother after her victory: when the chauffeur opened the door for her, she was greeted with Itsuko’s approving grin, all had went well for her too, Kagami guessed. She looked back at Marinette one more time and finally got in the car. Marinette watched the car drive away. Well then, she sighed, that had been something. She dismissed the beginning of a pang of dissatisfaction before it could grow any larger.

 

Later that day, after an akuma-free patrol without Chat Noir, she allowed herself a few minutes of rest on the balcony, bathing in the last lights of the day while Tikki nibbled on a cookie. That day, she reflected, had been almost perfect, and the weather was just warm enough for her be in her pyjamas — that would be her next project, she noted in her sketchbook labeled “projects for myself”, making new pyjamas for herself, but that could wait. Yes, Marinette thought, taking a sip of homemade lemonade, today had been quite a good day indeed, almost perfect. That was, until her phone buzzed softly.

 

She didn’t get it immediately. When she finally stretched her arm lazily to grab the phone, she was quite surprised. It wasn’t a text from Alya or even Nino, but an unknown number. She read the message and her eyes crinkled. Kagami — it had to be her, in fact she was sure that it was her before she had made it to the end of the message — had texted her, in the end, to tell her that she would go to the lycée Carnot in September too. She had even asked her how about the end of her afternoon and her evening! Now, Marinette could call this a perfect day. From her hotel room, Kagami shared almost the same thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir !
> 
> We are in for quite a long ride, about thirty six chapters or so, and I hope you will enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoy writing it. It is going to be quite a slow burn, so if you expect these two to make out in six chapters, you'll be disappointed. This is not the kind of fic I want to write.
> 
> When characters speak in another language than the default French, it will be specified in the narration and the dialog will be in _italics_. I won't use honorifics because it feels extremely awkward and artificial in the context of this fan fiction. Plus it often has this bad animu fic vibe that I do not want.
> 
> Do keep in mind that I am a poor tired baguette, and thus my English skills are… what they are, lacking at best.
> 
> France Culture is one of the best radio channels in France (according to me, at least). They mostly play music — classic, modern and contemporary music, mostly orchestral but not only, most of it is really good — you can visit the website [here](https://www.francemusique.fr).
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr [here](https://algernoninwonderland.tumblr.com) if you feel like it, that'd be very cool of you. It looks a little bad but I'll make it look better someday. I hope so, at least. I sometimes post things about France and writing tips about it, and small excerpts of the chapters to come before I put them online. You can also ask me stuff and maybe submit art for this fic if you feel like it!
> 
> À bientôt !


	2. Duel 2 : Two Months Off

Kagami stretched in her bed and yawned. She was still a little sleepy, but snuggling down in her bed might wouldn’t do. On the other hand, couldn’t she sleep until the end of August? The summer holidays almost felt like an eternity for her. Not that they were boring, on the contrary, and her mother had been as kind as to allow her to take a break from the Suginami Fencing Club for a week in the middle of July, the time for a trip to Kagoshima. Kagami had genuinely enjoyed it, the Botanical Garden and the aquarium, and simply being there. Mother had seemed more laid back then and Father too. Although it wasn’t the most exotic place for her to visit, it was still a nice break from Tokyo. Not that there was anything wrong with Tokyo, she liked it here, but it was synonym of hours of fencing  practice with people older than her that usually left her too tired to fully enjoy the company of her few friends afterwards. There was no such thing as lazing around, Grandfather would say when she was younger, and his daughter had passed down the lesson to her own child.

 

And so, she could hardly wait for September to finally come. She knew that the last week of August would be spent settling in Paris, and that was quite an exciting prospect in itself. There would be quite a lot of shopping to do, they wouldn’t be able to ship everything they owned off to France. She also learned that Father wouldn’t join them in France, but that was nothing new, he was never there anyway, too busy working on… Whatever it was, he usually didn’t like talking about it, but it was science-related, from what she remembered. They didn’t talk much lately, and it wasn’t as if she had tried to get closer to him. She still tried… But that did not stop her from enjoying these two months. She banished these thoughts and finally got out of bed. Kagami checked her clock, it read a quarter to eight in the morning, a nice time to wake up.

 

Come to think of it, these were quite good holidays, for reasons completely unrelated to fencing or her parents, a least not directly so. There was no schoolwork, no actual rush, only six hours of sports a day - her training wasn’t limited to fencing— and no competitions. More importantly, she could talk to Marinette and follow Ladybug and Chat Noir’s exploits thanks to a blog Marinette had said was the best. And it really was. While in Tokyo, she had heard a few things about superheroes in Paris, but she hadn’t really cared back then, it had sounded like something straight out of a bad tokusatsu show with animal-themed characters so that children would buy merchandise and action figures, the kind of show she’d watch after a hard day. But the Ladyblog had proven itself to be quite interesting and quite time-consuming too, Kagami reflected as she turned her computer on. Still about four minutes before Marinette would usually text her, she noted. She logged in the site.

 

There was no new footage, so far, but it seemed that a fight had occurred during the day, and some videos would go online soon. She couldn’t quite remember being Riposte, there were a few vague memories in the back of her head, but nothing quite as consistent as finding herself, her normal self, facing Ladybug afterwards, and the many theories published on the blog only brought up new questions It seemed that Hawk Moth, or Hawkmoth, or whatever the proper spelling for his name was, wasn’t familiar with the concept of summer holidays, and he still tried to wreak havoc on Paris, though not nearly as often as during the rest of the year. Was it because Paris’s regular inhabitants left the city during July and August? There were theories about akumas being the manifestation of the Parisian’s foul mood contained in one person at a time.  It had to be a joke, at least partly, she hoped, and at this point, she was too afraid to ask Marinette. She turned her laptop off and watered her small potted eucalyptus.

 

Kagami lazily pocketed her phone and walked to the kitchen. Mother wasn’t up yet. She put the bright red kettle on for her morning tea — she had tried coffee once and didn’t want to experience it ever again, her stomach wouldn’t allow it anyway and she wasn’t masochistic enough to try it one more time. She made herself some breakfast while looking absent-mindedly outside the window. Mother had shown her the pictures, their future flat and even though it would be quite nice to live there, she would miss the days  in Azabu, even in the rain like today that gave the street a watery green hue. It had been a nice neighbourhood and sometimes, she had truly been happy there, she thought as she  beat two eggs in a bowl and added a pinch of salt. She zoned out for a little while. She was halfway through her spinach omelet when her phone chimed. She knew who it was before even checking it. After weeks of texting Marinette, in French of course, she had finally understood her patterns and it seemed. Because of the time zone difference, Marinette would often text her at ungodly hours so that she wouldn’t disturb the other girl, something she had seemed very mindful about, and nothing Kagami said could make her stop doing so.

 

They had talked every other day at first, it had started with simple simple topics such as school but it had bloomed into something more. In fact, reading Marinette’s texts and answering them while having breakfast had slowly turned into a daily ritual they both followed religiously. Today’s message was short and vague, but it sounded like Marinette was feeling a little tired as she had to stay with her parents to help them at the bakery; it must have been quite a hard day, if her typos meant anything. She was quite secretive when it came to her hobbies, but Kagami didn’t want to pry. She simply hoped that Marinette was alright, and her message was filled with care. She was a little worried but she hoped it didn’t show too much in her message. But also that it would show a little. Did that make sense? She hoped it did. Either way, she pressed the “send” icon. Was her friend — could she call her a friend? She didn’t feel like a mere acquaintance anymore — alright? The thought kept nagging at her.

 

 

Marinette’s back hurt. And her arms. And her legs. And her head. Everything hurt, really, and it wasn’t the nice kind of pain  one experiences after a rewarding workout session, more of a “I tried to stop a bus driver turned akuma and his vehicle with nothing but my yo-yo, my strength and Chat Noir’s help and nearly failed” kind of pain. Tikki had absorbed most of the shock, but her entire body still felt like it was throbbing or boiling or both. If it could talk, it would scream, even when she lay on her back in her chaise longue the way she did right now. She couldn’t think straight at the moment anyway, and she didn’t even want to re-read the sloppy text she had just sent Kagami. It must have sounded whiny and sometimes, she wondered why the Japanese girl kept up with her at all. Not that she didn’t want her to.

 

A few minutes later, as her phone screen lit up with Kagami’s answer which she read carefully in a better French than hers. She had recommended cold showers if she didn’t want to be sore all over and Marinette followed her advice after she typed back a few words of of thank and wished her a good day. It did help a little, she thought as a small stream of icy water trickled down her back. She stepped out of the bath and wrapped herself in a towel. Her parents were already fast asleep, and they had grown used to their daughter’s weird habits so they were no more complaints from them, Marinette was grateful for that. She tiptoed back to her room, hoping that she hadn’t made too much noise when she had opened the trapdoor, put on her brand new summer pyjamas and climbed up the stairs to her bed, put her phone on the bookshelf above the bed— she really wanted  to chat some more with Kagami but she was too tired for that tonight— and collapsed immediately onto the bed. Then rolled to the side. And to the other side of the double bed. Then glanced at the night through the skylight. Her eyes wouldn’t close. Great.

 

She couldn’t sleep and her thoughts kept coming back to Hawk Moth, Chat Noir, Adrien, her friends at school and lately Kagami too. Some thoughts were more pleasant than other, Hawk Moth was not one of them. His very existence raised so many questions she had no answer to, but only theories that had proven themselves pointless as to his identity and how he had gotten his hands on the Butterfly Miraculous in the first place. She managed to get the idea out of her head and tried to think of Adrien instead. It did not work too well. Being away from him during the entire summer with no way to contact him — she had deleted his phone number by accident, and had been to shy to ask him afterwards— made her create the picture of a fake character she knew was not the real Adrien, and this very knowledge was irritating. She still cherished the lucky charm he had gifted her for her birthday, she had even slept with it and she still hoped she would end up in the same class as him but being away from him with no news made it feel somewhat off.

 

Despite all of that and her having to stay in Paris because of her hero duties — she had to make half-baked excuses not to go to her grandparent’s house in Charente, not that grandma was here for more than a day, following her motto, Gina Dupain had the entire world to explore— and the downsides that came with it, she didn’t hate the holidays as much as she had expected. Not that she didn’t usually like summers, but they were often quite lonely. This time, she had people to talk to, and although Alya had decided to spend the entirety of August in Martinique with her parents and her sisters, they had been almost inseparable in July.  Now that she really thought about it, most Parisians went on holiday in August. She had hung out with other former schoolmates from collège too, once or twice, and it had been very nice and all. And then there was Kagami.

 

It had started with questions about the school life and Paris in general, to which Marinette had answered with as much precision as she could provide, and ever so slowly, the conversation had turned into something more personal. It had been sharing music at first and then more, like how they had slept and what they did with their days, pictures and reading suggestions, advice on miscellaneous subjects. Marinette had convinced Kagami to give video games a try — in her fifteen years of existence, Kagami had only played once or twice for lack of interest in it—and they kept one another up to date on their progress when it came to the few games they had decided to play together, or at least at the same time. It had been older games, mostly, and Chrono Trigger soon became one of Kagami’s favourites. They tried newer ones too, and Shovel Knight had kept them busy for quite a long time. There were many games Marinette hadn’t dared suggest, but there would be time for them someday.

 

Lately, they were having a good time playing Pocket Camp, Marinette had always liked Animal Crossing’s laid-back atmosphere, Kagami hadn’t seemed so convinced at first but it had changed thanks to Marinette’s encouragements, and it was quite fun to visit each other. Marinette hoped they would play Ultimate Mecha Strike III together one day. Now, they usually chatted about anything and everything, and it was surprisingly nice, though Marinette had to be quite vague, more often than not lying by omission, a technique she had perfected. She couldn’t outright tell Kagami something in the lines of “hey, I save Paris on a daily basis thanks to the power Tikki grants me, you know, my kwami, who is contained in my earrings, which happen to be the Miraculous of Creation… Wanna grab ice cream?” Or could she? She hoped Kagami didn’t worship Ladybug.

 

Marinette knew sleep wouldn’t come to her this easily, and she groped for her phone in the dark while making sure not to wake Tikki up. Texting Alya or maybe Kagami it would be, then. She was too tired to do anything else anyway, she didn’t trust herself with climbing down the stairs at the moment. How she wished she had night vision, she thought as her hand fumbled around for what felt like hours but were really a few seconds. When had she become so impatient about texting? The summer before, it hadn’t mattered at all, there was no one for her to talk to, at least not as a friend. Friends. She was really lucky, she thought. The sudden light of the screen almost blinded her but that didn’t matter. It was half past one but she couldn’t have cared less. Tomorrow, or rather today, was a Sunday and she would sleep for as long as she wanted, unless something akuma-related came up. She sent Alya an overly dramatic message.

 

Then a second one and even a third after that. No answer came, of course, but that was to be expected. Knowing Alya, if she didn’t answer immediately, she must either be swimming or having dinner with her family. And with that, Marinette started typing a message, before she erased it completely and started anew until she found the perfect wording, or at least what she thought to be the perfect wording at this ungodly hour. She hoped Kagami would answer soon if she answered at all. She stifled a yawn. What was she doing? Marinette hit the “Send” icon and kept her fingers crossed. 

 

Kagami was halfway through the sit-ups part of her work out routine when she heard her phone chime. None of her other friends would be up this early, she knew it. Mother was having a shower, so she wouldn’t notice if she stopped now, would she? She heaved a small sigh. She would stick to what she was doing first. Thirty more and then she’d answer, she thought as she breathed out. Even if she wanted nothing more than to answer the text immediately, knowing who it might be from.. Twenty nine left… Seventeen more to go… Only five now… And done! It was quite gratifying, and she had a tendency to skip it during the school year… She would have to make herself a new schedule once in Paris, she mused as she snatched her water bottle from the table and took a long gulp. She took her phone in her hand and read the new message that could only come from Marinette.

 

 **From :** Marinette Dupain-Cheng

 **To :** Me

_Kagamiiiiii :o_

_The cold shower worked rlly well so thnaks ;)_

_But I cant sleep, too much on my mind :(_

_And before you ask, Ill tell you about it later but not now cause it wouldnt make any snse_

_You doin anything fun? ;)_

_Sned me pictures of you and Tokyo and ur grandmas cat pleaaaaase_

 

Kagami’s eyes crinkled and she didn’t stop the bubble of laughter that escaped her lips. How could anyone be as adorable as her? She could hardly wait September to spend some real time with Marinette. Only a few weeks, she reminded herself as she sent back whatever pictures she could think of. Did Marinette ask for pictures of her? Somehow, it made her panic. She couldn’t just send her a selfie right now, her hair was a mess and she was sweaty, she would look dreadful, she thought, and that wouldn’t do. Kagami browsed through the few photos of her she had — she usually didn’t take many herself, mostly of her friends, new landscapes and a few other things, but if Marinette asked, maybe she could try — and settled for the few in which she didn’t find her face too horrible. This was exactly why she hadn’t started an Instagram account. Was that picture in front of the volcano too cliché? She decided against sending the one in which she wore her school uniform in the middle of the cherry blossom, it was a bit too much. When Kagami finally made her choice and sent her message, Marinette was already fast asleep, dreaming about what the new year would be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir!
> 
> Next chapter, they'll finally meet again in person, don't worry!
> 
> If you don't know what tokusatsu is, [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K_BkP9Bx-Q%22) is an example of what it's all about.
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr [here](https://algernoninwonderland.tumblr.com), I post previews for the incoming chapters and I sometimes post writing tips about France. Submit your art for this fic if you feel like it or ask me stuff, who knows, I might answer!
> 
> Keep in mind that French is my first language, not English.
> 
> À lundi!


	3. Duel 3 : The New Kid

The Parisian underground was the very definition of chaos, with stressed out people running with little to no care for whatever or whoever was in their way, and quite honestly, this lack of consideration annoyed Kagami to no end. The Charles de Gaulle Étoile underground station almost felt too small. And why couldn’t they simply wait and stay in line? The crowd didn’t make any sense at all. Worst of all, if the underground train happened to be late, and it looked as though it would be the case, then so would she and being late for the first day of school wouldn’t do. Not that she would actually be late, she had carefully predicted every possible scenario, not excluding the likelihood of Hawk Moth attacking the city, to make sure that she would make it to the lycée Carnot in time, but still. Taking the métro was the least risky option, she knew that the traffic, a few metres above her head, was even worse. Paris could be quite messy and needlessly overcomplicated, she thought as she sent Marinette a short and quite panicked text. 

 

They hadn’t managed to see each other in the week before the start of the school year and this for a good reason : moving house took quite some time and all the purchases that needed to be made too, and Mother had wanted her around the whole time. It would take some time to get fully used to it, but she liked the flat. It did not feel like home, at least not yet, but she hoped it would come soon. The hissing sound of the underground train slowing down and its blinding light brought her back to reality, and the fact that she would need to elbow her way to the train,. The doors opened, and a tide of passengers came out while a wave tried to get in. 

 

Kagami turned up the volume of her music — SoKo for today— and tried not to notice the unpleasant smell of the crowd as she managed to find a place in the car. What was it with some passengers spreading out as much as they could, even though they quite obviously disturbed the others? She waited and tried to keep her calm, only four stops to go and then she would gladly get the hell out of this bloody overgrown tin can that rolled under the city. _Foutue boîte à sardine_ _de mes deux, si tu pouvais magner ton putain de cul ce serait une riche idée_. Sometimes, cursing felt nice. 

 

Finally, she got off at Villiers, and was greeted with the sight of a crowded street hurrying up under the cool blueish light of an early September morning. She followed boulevard Malesherbes until she was met with the f of a small crowd in front of the school’s entrance, some students smoking, most chatting happily. She had already seen pictures of the place but the lycée Carnot looked straight from an engraving, with its combination of dressed stones and red bricks. She slowly made her way inside the school and checked her phone for any new message, and there were more than a few. Marinette telling her she wouldn’t be there before a few more minute, Taneda and Aiko wishing her good luck for this first day and her mother too, she had never received so many texts in an entire day. Still nothing from Father… Should she stop hoping?

 

She straightened the collar of her red jacket as she arrived in the courtyard and she started to look for familiar faces but found none, no Marinette, no Adrien, no one she knew. Did she even belong here? There were so many people talking to each other and then there was Kagami Tsurugi. She would have felt like an alien if she didn’t speak French. She turned her head to the right and saw that there were small gatherings around each pillar in the courtyard… A diminutive man was nervously taping sheets of papers on them, and he looked on the verge of tears as he left one his job done, muttering something about a broken photocopier.

 

Kagami stepped closer and saw the names printed on the closest sheet. There were the lists of students in each class, one document per class. It took her three pillars before she finally found her name. She would be in _Seconde 4_ , it seemed. Her eyes travelled up and down the sheet. There were names she had seen in Marinette’s texts before “Nino”, “Alya”, “Chloé” —she almost winced— and a few others, but no “Adrien” in the list. She was almost disappointed, until she found Marinette’s name. Her heart skipped a beat and her moody state faltered instantly.. They would be in the same class, they would be together and she felt much lighter. 

 

She heard someone call her first name. Still a thing she would have to get used to, the French being so casual about the first name basis or sometimes not… She shook her head. It had to be a mistake. She knew the theory, but living it in practice didn’t quite feel the same. “Hey, Kagami, over here,” the voice called again. That voice… It was somehow familiar, in fact she had heard before, several times, without ever having met the person in the flesh. She tried to find the source of the voice until she found it. Her eyes widened, almost comically.

 

A girl with glasses and a mole on her forehead was waving at her, swinging along as she walked to meet Kagami and it felt almost surreal to finally meet her, as if a mythical creature had appeared before her. Of course, Kagami knew who this was, she was Marinette’s best friend, she had seen her in many photos Marinette had sent her, she ran the Ladyblog and her name was…

 

“Alya, right?” Kagami fought back a troubled frown. How did Alya know her name?  Did—

 

“Marinette told me to take care of you before she arrived,” Alya grinned before Kagami could formulate her question, and the grin widened when she saw Kagami turn a shade pinker. That would be more teasing material for her, Alya noted as she fiddled with her orange hair wrap. “Welcome to Paris, I mean you’ve heard it all before, I guess,” she said and held out a hand that Kagami shook without hesitation. “First year here, right? I know the feeling. Don’t worry you’ll get used to it in no time. You can ask me anything if you want!”

 

Kagami understood why Alya was Marinette’s best friend. She had that way to make people comfortable with a few words, almost as if she were the big sister she never knew she had until now. They made small talk for a little while until the conversation was about Ladybug and Chat Noir. Kagami felt like she had already found a new friend in her. Alya stole glances at her watch every so often, but there was still time, and maybe, just maybe, Marinette wouldn’t be late for once. Soon, it wasn’t just the two of them, as Nino joined them, saying hello to Alya with a peck on her lips. Adrien was still nowhere to be found, and Nino complained about the blond boy not being in their class this year. He hoped he wouldn’t feel too lonely. “We’ll have study sessions together anyway,” Alya reassured him. 

 

Then, suddenly Alya and Nino fell silent, not a strained silence as they tried their best to conceal their smiles but it felt as though they were part of a plan she had not been told about as though someone was running towards them but it was meant to be a surprise. Of course, it was exactly what was happening, and when Kagami turned round to see what they were smiling for, she saw a blur of pink and dark brown and felt something—someone?— soft but firm crash into her, and it almost knocked the air out of Kagami. She squeezed her eyes shut. Were these arms wrapping around her back? She opened her eyes and recognised the pigtails. Of course, it was her. It couldn’t have been anyone else. Kagami tried to move her arms but Marinette released her before she could hug her back. 

 

“H-hey,” Kagami said dazedly and she had a hard time meeting Marinette’s beautiful blue eyes without turning beet red but somehow she managed it. That had been close. It wasn’t because of Marinette’s sleeveless top that showed the beautiful freckles on her shoulders, simply that she wasn’t used to being hugged, yes, that had to be the reason why, Kagami told herself. 

 

“Hey,” Marinette repeated, slightly out of breath, but before she could say more, Alya grabbed her by the arm and pulled her into a bear hug and muffled laughs of “I know we hung out yesterday but I still missed you girl” and “I made it in time” could be head if one listened closely. Finally, Nino joined the hug and Kagami just stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. She spotted a mop of blond hair in the crowd. Adrien Agreste looked every part the model he was, from his Gabriel made-to-measure clothes to the smile. But he also looked quite lonely. Nino broke away from the hug and called Adrien’s name before Kagami could, and she saw something flicker in his eyes, not the expression of a model but of a teenager reuniting with his friends after two lonely months away from them. Nino ruffled his friend’s hair as they chatted excitedly. Adrien would be in Seconde 2, with a few other classmates from Françoise Dupont too. 

 

“You made it!” he beamed as he shook Kagami’s hand. “You got in the academy, I mean, that’s why you’re with us this year and not in Japan, right? I’m really looking forward to this rematch!” 

 

“You should have s-seen her wipe the floor with that other guy, it was really incredible” Marinette piped up without stammering too much. Alya gave her a small thumbs up and Marinette found the courage to add, “How were your summer holidays, Adrien?” Were he and Marinette an actual thing, Kagami wondered. She looked at Nino and Alya and smirked. Of course these two wanted Adrienette to be a thing. She watched them talk silently. Then, something struck Kagami. She hadn’t expected Marinette to talk about that small victory of hers at all, it had been nothing, only what was expected from her, wasn’t it so? So why had Marinette praised her? It felt warm. She liked it. 

 

“…were good, thanks for asking, Marinette how about—” Adrien was cut by the chime of the bell that announced the beginning of class. “How were yours?” he asked a little louder.

 

“Good, thank you,” she almost shouted as the two drifted apart, “c’mon Alya stop dragging me off, I can get to the classroom on my own! Look, Kagami can manage it quite well herself, she’s read the sheet, she actually knows where to go which is clearly not in that direction! Nino, tell her to let go of my arm in this instant!” Adrien vanished from her field of vision but she could hear the faint sound of his laugh. Marinette didn’t melt nearly as much as before when she heard that laugh, she would observe later. She was starting to mature, she thought as they climbed the steps to room 505. 

 

A teacher was waiting for them in the classroom, giving his new students a strained smile that looked out of place on his horsey face, as he wrote his name on the blackboard — M. Hippolyte Dupuis, it read, in a neat cursive handwriting. His sunken eyes assessed the small crowd in front of him. There were a few familiars faces, sharing a table with a boy who took off his cap was the girl who ran the Ladyblog, and behind them, the Dupain-Cheng’s daughter sitting with a girl wearing a red jacket. He also spotted the mayor’s daughter and cringed internally. He cleared his throat so that his students would stop chattering. He needed their attention, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to deliver his speech of the utmost importance. “How do you do, kids? As your form teacher, I…”

 

The rest was lost to the rest of the classroom. Kagami hesitated between voicing the sarcastic remarks that came up in her mind with every new sentence the teacher said, and yawning: she finally settled for the second option. . Was she the only one to find the form teacher a complete bore? Marinette was doodling in the margin of her notebook and she could hear hushed voices all around. That was quite terrible to say the least. She started doodling as well, sketches of sabres and fencing helmets. She would have her first fencing lesson at the D’Argencourt academy tonight, and she could hardly wait. She looked outside the window, hoping to find something, anything more interesting than the teacher drawling in front of the blackboard, and shared a few glances with Marinette who looked as bored as she was. They were about to scribble notes to each other when, an eternity later, M. Dupuis handed them their timetables. 

 

The chatter started again as the students started to compare their timetables. Marinette and Kagami had most of their classes together, but there were a few differences here and there: besides her additional English classes she would share with Adrien and extra social sciences lessons, Marinette would start learning Chinese — she had finally given up on Latin, but choosing between Chinese and Arabic had been quite hard— while Kagami would stick to a more classic combination, if not the most classic of all, English, German and ancient Greek. Kagami guessed she wasn’t too unhappy with her timetable. She heaved a sigh. If it hadn’t been for Marinette and the fencing lessons, she would rather have stayed at home and sleep all day. Marinette must have sensed her disappointment, and she mouthed a “don’t worry, he’s not like that when he’s teaching” that reassured Kagami a little. And Marinette was right. In fact, he proved himself to be a perfectly fine as an earth and life sciences teacher in the next hour and a half that followed that false start. 

 

And then the floor began shaking. Once, then twice, then a regular thud, as if something enormous was walking downstairs. It was no earthquake, Kagami was sure of that, and the roar that rang out from somewhere inside the building only confirmed it. Could it be? The fire alarm started blaring and the class started panicking, even M. Dupuis seemed rather distressed, some students ran out of the classroom and it was like a fencing match again. The entire world shrunk until it was only her and the residual but insignificant presence of other people. 

 

The room darkened noticeably as the classroom emptied itself. Kagami looked outside the window but she couldn’t see. It was as if someone had covered the windowpanes with… Paper? A layer of documents that seemed to be covering the entire building, in fact. There was the smell of something burning from a distance, but Kagami was too focused on the state of the windowpane to notice it. A voice thundered from the loudspeakers, so loud that it could be heard from miles around the lycée, as if to draw attention. Kagami had watched enough blockbusters to know that it was exactly Hawk Moth’s plan.

 

“Ladybug, Chat Noir, it is I, the Administrator!” the voice boomed. “Surrender your Miraculouses, or watch Paris disappear under the mighty power of paperwork!” A louder thud shook the building. 

 

The sound brought Kagami back to reality, and she found herself alone. Was Marinette safe? Were Alya, Nino and Adrien safe? Marinette wasn’t answering her call. It was bad. Very bad. She hurriedly made her way out of the classroom and struggled to open one of the corridor’s windows that overlooked the courtyard. A gigantic, kaiju-like creature, a terrifying heap made of purplish sheets of paper and deadly sharp staples, was spewing mountains of documents out of its enormous mouth. The Administrator extended a monstrous arm to grab a student with glasses and dark brown, almost red hair that was trying to film him with her telephone. Flashes of red an black caught her eye, followed by a small explosion. She only saw their silhouettes but she knew exactly who they were, and the squeals she could hear from a room nearby only confirmed what she had just witnessed.

 

“Hey, big guy,” Ladybug shouted, standing from a rooftop, burned scraps of paper swirling around her, her eyes gleaming with determination as she looked at the akuma down below, her arms crossed. “Pick on someone your own size!”

 

“Meowth, that’s right,” Chat Noir added mischievously and Kagami was pretty sure she heard Ladybug groan.

 

“ _Well_ ,” Kagami said in her mother’s tongue as she watched the heroes rescue poor Alya and the akumatized victim within the eldritch abomination while dodging, or in Chat Noir’s case, while trying to dodge a bullet hell of high velocity paper pellets and akuma-powered paperclips, “ _it looks like the beginning of quite an interesting year_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir!
> 
> Next chapter, some sabre fencing. And Kagami turning bright red.
> 
> The Parisian underground is as nightmarish as I make it sound, really. You heard me complain about it in Needles, Cookies and Catnip, but… Yeesh. 
> 
> SoKo does things like [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDmvVilFeVQ) and I think it’s pretty good!
> 
> Someone ought to draw Ladybug doing the Gainax stance! Also, there's a not so hidden Inio Asano reference in this chapter. 
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr [here](https://algernoninwonderland.tumblr.com), I post previews for the incoming chapters and I sometimes post writing tips about France. Submit your art for this fic if you feel like it or ask me stuff, who knows, I might answer! Maybe. I made a post about the school system that might help you understand the story a little more, but I didn't want to make it an info dump. It's[ here](https://algernoninwonderland.tumblr.com/post/173480547601/writing-tips-the-french-public-secondary).
> 
> Still a baguette, the bad English is not intended… 
> 
> À jeudi!


	4. Duel 4 : Qualifications of a Duelist

The regular sound of footsteps on the green linoleum floor, laid back conversations and sometimes the clatter of blades filled the gymnasium. It was now Kagami’s fifth fencing lesson at the D’Argencourt academy, and she was starting to find her points of reference. The warmth of this Wednesday afternoon would have been quite unbearable, if M. D’Argencourt hadn’t managed to relocate his academy within the walls of the lycée Carnot. The air conditioning was working at full capacity. Kagami wondered if her mother was partly responsible for it, knowing Itsuko Tsurugi, she certainly was. And here she was, practicing her moulinet with the master himself. He had insisted that it was not so much of an outdated manœuvre but rather a technique too difficult for most to use in actual competitions. It was a far cry from what Grandfather would have taught her, but she complied anyway. 

 

It was time she tried her own style. Mother hadn’t chosen Armand D’Argencourt for nothing, he had been an Olympic Champion after all. And so, she parried the instructor’s sabre — Prime—her blade pointing down to protect her chest before she retaliated and winced as her circular cut missed completely. Her forearm was sore but she didn’t want to stop just now. She could feel the rest of the fencing students watching her intently, sizing her up. She needed to show them that she belonged there. She squared her shoulders a little more as she stepped back

 

“Do try a little slower, Kagami,” M. D’Argencourt advised from under his fencing mask, “you almost had it. Let us do it two more times and then I shall see how my other students are doing.”

 

She nodded and they resumed the exercise. Saying that it was no picnic would have been quite an understatement. Her first try wasn’t good, in fact she barely managed to see her instructor’s attack. She gritted her teeth and managed a last second parry, almost losing her footstep as her blade pointed forward — a sloppy Seconde. He wasn’t going easy on her, and she was quite grateful for that. The flick of her wrist was once more too fast, her circular cut missed him again. The second try was a little better, almost a touch, the fencing master said, but still nowhere near as good as what Kagami wanted. There was still quite some work to do before she would get there. Not that she would use the moulinet anytime soon, but this was the reason why Mother had decided to come here in the first place, for her daughter to get even better. 

 

M. D’Argencourt left her after a word of encouragement and barked at a student referee who was slacking off. Arien must have been somewhere in the room, she simply didn’t see him. Kagami took off her fencing mask as a younger student handed her a water bottle, looking at her with admiration. She refrained the need to roll her eyes, simply took the bottle with a silent “thank you” and took a couple of swallows before she looked around her. There were about fifteen students, but none she could recognise yet, and she blamed the uniform for that. Then again, not all could afford a custom-made fencing gear like hers.

 

The doors opened and she saw Nino, Alya and Marinette enter the gymnasium. They look around before they sat down on a nearby bench. Why were they here? Was it to watch? Weren’t they supposed to study? They had asked her to come and join them, did that mean that there had been a change? And why would they come at all? It was only a fencing lesson like many others, it was so plain, Kagami thought as took her helmet under her arm and walked to join them. 

 

They did not share her point of view, it seemed, as Nino was taking notes in a small notebook — for a short film project of his, he said with a wink— and Marinette was almost jumping up and down in her seat with enthusiasm. Why was she always so adorable? Alya didn’t look as thrilled as the other two but she didn’t seem to mind too much. Kagami tried to be as much of a professional as she could, there would be time for small talk later. Were they only there to watch a simple training session with not much going on, Kagami wondered.

 

“We were thinking of going for ice cream after your rematch with Adrien, I mean, the five of us,” Marinette said and Kagami had to fight the smile that was about to form on her lips. She would have all the time for it later, but now she had to be all about fencing. And with what Marinette had just said…

 

“A rematch? What do you m—”

 

“Your attention, please, everyone.” M. D’Argencourt yelled, his hands cupped around his mouth. What was it with the entire universe answering Kagami’s questions before she could even ask them at all? “As some of us here seem to think that this is a tearoom where you can chat all day long and do nothing else,” he glared at two boys who immediately straightened up, “I would like M. Agreste and Mlle Tsurugi to join me on the piste for a little demonstration of what fencing in my academy is all about.” 

 

Kagami blinked. And blinked again. Had it been Marinette’s idea? She would ask later. She turned her back to her three friends and put her fencing mask back on as she walked to the piste, an aura of confidence and power emanating from her every step. She looked regal. She was finally going to face Adrien, a worthy opponent, but also a friend. Hadn’t he  introduced her to the rest of the fencers? After all, they had even trained together a few times, she could call him a friend. It did not meant she would let him win. The blond boy flashed her a smile before he followed suit and put his mask on as well. They clipped the body cords to their lamés and saluted each other with a vigorous handshake. 

 

He would not hold back, and so neither would she, their eyes said. Doing otherwise would have been disrespectful. She touched his lamé with her sabre, and he did the same with hers, the scoring box flashing up each time, a red light then a green one. Voices were starting to cheer for Adrien from every side of the gymnasium, none for her, but that was to be expected after all. If she won, it would be different. “You two, do your best!” a voice shouted from behind her, and Kagami didn’t need to turn her head to see who had just said that. A small fire began to burn in her chest.

 

“En garde!”

 

Here they were. Her feet shifted slightly until she was in position. No flashy stance this time, although it was really tempting. Instead, she adopted the most perfect en garde posture she could manage. She would not give everything away just now. Mother would be proud if she could see her. No approximations, only the very best of her abilities. She breathed in and out. Kagami’s world started to turn black as it got smaller until it was only Adrien, M. D’Argencourt, the piste and her, nothing else. 

 

Her focus was perfect and when the referee yelled “prêts?”, time slowed down for the three of them. M. D’Argencourt ’s steely gaze was on them. Adrien stayed as still as his opponent, his grip firm on the hilt of this sabre. She must have waited months for this rematch, he thought. He couldn’t think of a proper strategy… It didn’t matter, he told himself as he took a deep breath. With a sabre in his hand, Adrien Agreste was quite formidable, and he would not disappoint his opponent, nor his friends or his fencing instructor. 

 

“Allez!”

 

Adrien opened his eyes, his pupils almost slits, and Kagami lunged at him before he could move, the point of her sabre getting dangerously close to his body. He hadn’t expected her to attack him first. She was good, scarily good, at least as good as him if not better. Adrien winced as he did a passata-sotto to escape Kagami’s blade, but failed to land a hit. She interrupted his tentative remise with an immediate parry. Adrien knew what was coming now. She had the right-of-way but he managed to parry her incoming blow. What he had not expected was her blade whipping over his guard right after. 

 

“Touche!” M. D’Argencourt roared and Adrien straightened up. He would not let her win the next point.

 

“En garde!” Adrien readied his sabre. “Prêts?” He was going to win this one. “Allez!” He started with a simple an appel, his foot stamping to the ground before he advanced and extended his arm in a simple extension but retreated in the last second. His feint worked to perfection as Kagami made a quarter turn to conceal her front. He lunged before she could recover but she parried, shielding her back with a neuvième just like he had expected. She failed to move her feet backwards to a passe arrière in time as he returned to his en garde position and executed a perfect reprise. 

 

He didn’t need to hear M. D’Argencourt’s voice to know that he had won this point. Only four more to go and he would be declared the winner of the bout. He frowned as he adjusted his footing. He was sure that Kagami was smirking under her fencing mask, as though she had heard his thoughts. He tried to keep his cool. She was not Riposte, he reminded himself, and there was no danger at all, her smirk, if she had smirked at all, wasn’t filled with a malicious intent, it was only friendly competition. 

 

Marinette clenched her fists as she watched Adrien and Kagami move around each other and she bit the inside of her cheek. Blinking meant missing part of the action and there was so much going. Kagami’s blade grazed her opponent’s in a perfect press and Adrien’s sabre was forced out of line. She could see his arm twitching for a second before he tried to disengage. By simply looking at the way his feet dragged, Marinette knew that he had failed to be fast enough to make it a simultaneous touch that would have saved him. 

 

The point of Kagami’s sabre hit his lamé in a simple thrust. She would have to ask Kagami to be her personal fencing teacher if she ever wanted to enter the D’Argencourt fencing academy as a student, Marinette thought as Kagami stepped back to her en garde stance. She seemed as focused as she had been a minute ago, not letting her advantage go to her head. Adrien was equally serious. Marinette gulped.

 

Kagami won the next point too, and the one after that as well. She tried slightly different approaches each time, that proved themselves to be quite efficient. Marinette noticed a slight change of atmosphere in the gymnasium. They had been quite surprised by Kagami’s almost flawless strategy to counter Adrien’s attacks. Her glide proved itself quite efficient when Adrien tried to make contact between their blades, the way her sabre slid down Adrien’s before she got the hit a split second later elicited more than a few oohs from her audience. 

 

Some of the other fencers in the gymnasium seemed to have finally understood who the girl in the red fencing gear was, not only an aloof, stuck up girl who didn’t like to chat once her fencing lessons were over, but as much of a champion in the making as Adrien was. Still, not all of them thought so. Nonetheless, when Adrien managed to interrupt Kagami’s trompement, the crowd stayed silent and his clean riposte was not met with as much applause as before. The air was electric. If Kagami managed to land one more hit, he would lose unless a foul happened, and knowing her, it was unlikely. Adrien’s stance shifted slightly, his footwork becoming more nimble, cat-like even as he waited for his opponent to lunge at him.

 

She acted exactly the way he had planned she would and if it hadn’t been for his fencing mask, all could have seen a very Chat-like smirk. His parry and the riposte that came after were merciless, but Kagami successfully escaped Adrien’s sabre anyway, sidestepping for as long as she could, until she couldn’t. She glanced at her left foot and her eyes widened. His plan had worked, as much as she hated to admit it, she was in the end of the piste and unless she succeeded in miraculously pushing him back to the centre of the piste… She parried his next blow and the one after until she couldn’t keep up without stepping backwards. 

 

His blade finally connected with her fencing mask and the scoring box blinked green. Kagami’s breath hitched. He could still make in a victory if he managed to score the next hit and then, knowing his master’s habits, there would be one more point to score. They made made their way back to the middle of the piste, their breathing a little ragged. Adrien needed to end this quickly before he lost his focus. Kagami’s expression remained unreadable under her fencing mask. 

 

“En garde. Prêts?” They had the exact same idea. “Allez!” The both of them lunged at the other in the same time in a blur of white and red. Their blades met halfway, mirroring each other perfectly. Did she want to do it that way? Alright then, Adrien thought, and he sped up the pace, hoping that she wouldn’t last as long as he would. He saw how futile this wish was when she beat his blade out of line and extended her arm to strike him. He did not take the time to think, he did the same.

 

From that distance, there was no way either of the two fencers could miss, not with their accuracy, no way they could have dodged either. The scoring box lit up, but none of them dared move and the gymnasium was silent. They stayed perfectly still, not able to tell who had hit their opponent first. “Simultané, pas de touche!”, M. D’Argencourt boomed. Adrien heaved a sigh in relief. He desperately needed a break, it seemed that it was the same for Kagami, but neither of them asked the fencing instructor. If they played by the rules, they would respect every detail, even if that meant being a little thirsty and out of breath.

 

Kagami’s en garde stance shifted slightly when the referee simply said “Allez!”, but Adrien did not attack immediately. He even seemed to invite her to attack and dropped guard completely, even spreading his arms apart and sliding his sabre behind his back. Recollection flashed in M. D’Argencourt's eyes. He knew exactly what his student thought he was doing and he appreciated the hommage to his glorious ancestor. Under her mask, Kagami smirked before she lunged at Adrien and stopped at the last second, successfully sidestepping the sudden thrust that was meant to hit her lamé, a risky esquive but it had worked. 

 

And now, Kagami thought, it’s show time. She skipped past her opponent, faster than he had ever seen her move, and Adrien turned around just in time to dodge what he thought was meant to be a decisive cut to his side, an attack that only missed him by a hair’s breadth. Her feint had worked. Kagami passed backwards and returned to her original position before Adrien could recover. She feinted once more when Adrien started to face her, then slipped her sabre under his guard as she bent her knees. The scoring box blinked, and red flashed over the green linoleum floor of the gymnasium. 

 

“TOUCHE!” M. D’Argencourt yelled, breaking the two fencers’s concentration and the spectators started to clap, reluctantly for some like Vincent, but they applauded nonetheless, Marinette even stood up as she kept on clapping.  Kagami rose up from her crouched position and removed her fencing mask, turning away from the crowd. Her gaze fell on Adrien’s outstretched hand. There was no resentment in his eyes, only respect and admiration. They shook hand and saluted each other like it was expected.

 

“How did you know?” Adrien asked. “About the D’Argencourt secret technique, I mean. Isn’t it supposed to be, you know, secret?”

 

“Mum told me how it works,” Kagami grinned, “but I was impressed, that was quite brave of you to try that on me! If she hadn’t told be, you would have won the hit. I’ve never done it myself.”

 

“I shall teach you, Kagami,” M. D’Argencourt said in a low voice so that only the two students could hear. “Adrien, I am very flattered. I am proud of you two, and so you can be proud of yourselves too!” He cleared his throat and roared, “lesson dismissed! Remember what you’ve seen, this is what you must strive for!”

 

Kagami tried to refresh herself the best she could and took a quick shower, not caring about the weird looks the three other girls were giving her. She made sure not to wet her hair — she’d enjoy a nice bath in the evening if she found the time for it—  and did her makeup in no time. Looking dead-tired wouldn’t do well for her self-confidence, and these dark rings under her eyes were quite persistent, but she managed to conceal them nonetheless. She didn’t need to steal a glance in the mirror to know that it was perfect. When Kagami finally got out of the changing room to join her friends, she only found Alya, Nino and Marinette. 

 

From the corner of her eyes, she could see a steel grey car drive away. Based on Marinette’s slightly disappointed look that vanished when she saw Kagami arrive, she could only guess that the boy had obligations somewhere else. Well then, she thought as she readjusted her  blue denim overalls, that would only be the four of them instead of five, too bad that she wouldn’t be able to tease Adrien about what she had dubbed the Density Problem. Alya and Nino were having a passionate conversation about which kind of sword would suit Ladybug better but Marinette did not seem so interested in the conversation. She mouthed something at Kagami, but the girl didn’t understand and looked at Marinette quizzically. Marinette made intricate gestures around her head but Kagami still couldn’t understand. 

 

“Helmet hair, above your left ear, it’s kinda cute but…” Marinette finally said, her eyes crinkling fondly as she kept herself from laughing as Kagami  ran a nervous hand through her black hair.

 

“Thanks for saving me, I guess,” she said and there was something that flickered in these blue eyes that she couldn’t name. “So, where are we going? Berthillon?”

 

“Even better, André, he’s been spotted somewhere near Promenade Pereire,” Marinette answered. “You’ll really have to teach me how to fence someday!” And she started skipping down boulevard Malesherbes. 

 

Alya took Nino’s hand and dragged him along. Kagami followed and took part in Alya and Nino’s discussion for a little while. She tried her best not to stare at Marinette’s toned legs. She really tried. That pleated skirt really looked good on her, Kagami almost thought before she chastised herself. Marinette is only a good friend, she told herself, only a good friend, and I bet she would look even better without that skirt. Kagami fought the blush that threatened to form on her cheeks and decided to look up at the blue September sky instead. She felt so lucky to be there with them. It had only been a week, but it felt as though so much had already happened, she was getting used to the whole métro situation, class was… alright, she guessed, she would have to try to meet her other classmates, although they didn’t interest her the slightest. But she wasn’t lonely. Marinette was her friend. And Marinette’s friends were slowly starting to become her own friends too. 

 

Kagami hummed to herself, simply enjoying the sun’s caress on her freckled skin. She could caught the smell of roses and magnolias, and she knew that they had arrived at last. Promenade Pereire felt like a small haven of peace and vegetation, lawn and shrubs, spots of red roses and creme magnolias. And there was André, Kagami thought. The portly man beamed at them from behind his ice cream cart and beckoned them over. Kagami simply stayed there, a little distant from it, until Marinette grabbed her wrist to lead her to the ice cream cart. Kagami did her best not to focus on the tingling sensation Marinette’s touch left on her skin.

 

“Alya, Nino, and Marinette too! How glad I am to see you!” the ice cream vendor sang. “Coconut, banana and a touch passionfruit, for you two?” Alya and Nino nodded as André’s ice cream scooper moved at an impressing fast pace. He handed the couple a perfect ice cream cone. “And you brought a new face! Hello, mademoiselle?”

 

“Her name is Kagami,” Marinette said helpfully, putting her hand on Kagami’s shoulder. André’s eyes sparkled with playfulness, and it seemed as though he was trying very hard not to look too joyful.

 

“The two beautiful ladies now! Strawberry with black chocolate chip, blackberries and oh! a touch of vanilla with hazelnut chip… Marinette, Kagami, I am very happy for you…” and he handed Marinette a single ice cream cornet, not finding a proper rhyme to end his sentence. He had given them one ice cream for two, just like he had for Nino and Alya. Kagami couldn’t hide her blush as Marinette paid for the ice cream, calling it a gift, but she didn’t dare look at her after that. She couldn’t help the thoughts that started whirring in her mind either. 

 

Had André just called them a beautiful couple? Did he think they were in a relationship? Why did it make her knees go weak and her heart beat so fast? It had to be hypoglycaemia, there was no other possible explanation. She had thought about Marinette that way once or twice but they had only been thoughts, her thoughts, merely figments of her too tired imagination late at night. What was she going to do? To Kagami, the promenade fell uncharacteristically silent for a Wednesday afternoon, if it weren’t for Nino and Alya chatting casually. As if nothing had happened. As if there were nothing to be worried about. Marinette was enjoying the ice cream, it seemed, if her satisfied smile meant anything. 

 

“Kagami, please, have some with me?” Marinette asked, almost too casually. She really hoped Kagami hadn’t noticed how red her cheeks had been a moment ago. Kagami cleared her throat discretely, and decided that she didn’t trust her voice at the moment. She simply nodded instead and took the small plastic spoon. She started with the vanilla ice-cream. It was delicious.

 

When she finally got home a few hours later, Kagami could say that it had been one of her best, most confusing Wednesday afternoons ever. She would have a lot to write in her Paris journal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir!
> 
> Next chapter, school life, music and maybe a ladybug?
> 
> Many things going on! Writing fencing matches is hard because everything goes ridiculously fast. Also, refereeing in fencing is chiefly done in French. So that's not gratuitous, for once.
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr [here](https://algernoninwonderland.tumblr.com), I post previews for the incoming chapters and I sometimes post writing tips about France. Also, my Tumblr looks a lot better now! Submit your art for this fic if you feel like it or ask me stuff, who knows, I might answer! Maybe.
> 
> Still as French as before, the bad English is not intended…
> 
> À lundi!


	5. Duel 5 : Add a Soundtrack to Your Life and Perfect It

“Lăoshī, it means the time words are normally placed after the subject but before the verb phrase?”

 

“Yes, Marie-Pierre,” Madame Michaud answer. “Now class, I know that we will have our first test on Monday and that it can be quite intimidating, but I’d like you to follow , but I would like you all to remember that my grading system will not allow approximate knowledge.” 

 

Marinette stifled a yawn. She wanted nothing more than a good night of rest, but she scribbled in her exercise book nonetheless, even though her wrist still ached from the akuma attack that had happened during lunchtime. Being Ladybug didn’t excuse her from studying Chinese properly, after all. The akuma attack… Chat had been late and although Hawk Moth had chosen a rather weak champion this time, as always, it had been no picnic. Who knew angry food critics could be this pugnacious? She was glad she hadn’t invited anyone over at her house this day, explaining why she had to vanish suddenly would have been quite awkward. 

 

She’d get home and take a nap before dinner time, she was sure Alya wouldn’t mind her missing whatever Ladybug-related activities she had planned for them to do. She sneaked a glance at the wall clock. Still about seventeen painfully slow minutes to go, she noted as she bit the inside her cheek. She would be at home around a quarter to seven. She didn’t like finishing school so late. She yawned again. She couldn’t focus on anything right now, left alone her Chinese exercise book, which frustrated her to no end. She yawned once more. How she wished she could have rested properly… School work, fashion designing, having a social life and her superhero duties left her with very little time for anything else. Marinette was mostly happy with her life, but if she could add six more hours for her to get some rest, she would be even happier.

 

“Hey, Karim, what’s the answer for number ten?” she whispered as softly as she could. Which was too softly for him to hear. She poked at his arm with her pencil instead. “What did you write for number ten?

 

“I don’t know… I think the answer’s ‘C’ but…” The boy brushed a hand on his nape. “ What did you write?”

 

Madame Michaud gave Karim a piercing stare and a hint of red coloured his olive skin. He fell silent and looked almost outraged, as though it had been completely her fault. She couldn’t blame him, honestly, but giving her the cold shoulder wasn’t helping She almost wished she had sat next to Kim, she knew he was there, somewhere behind her, trying to look for the proper answers himself. Marinette had successfully convinced him to learn Chinese, after all. But in the end getting to know other people from her new class instead of staying stuck with only the friends she had made in collège felt nice too. Besides, if everything went well, Kim and she would have their monthly Vietnamese and Chinese cuisine dinner soon. She’d apologise to Karim once Madame Michaud was done. 

 

And so, she resumed filling the answers in the multiple choice questionnaire in complete silence. Couldn’t they do something that would feel a little more alive than that to want to learn the language? Something that could give them the impression that Chinese was indeed a spoken language, an aspect that disappeared completely in that method of teaching. It almost felt like Latin all over again. Marinette wrote ‘B’ as the answer to question number ten after a long deliberation. It made more sense, or at least she thought it did. She’d ask her mum if she could tell her more about it, she decided. She hoped that Nino’s Arabic class were going better, and that Kagami’s German class wasn’t too painful. Little did Marinette know that what was going on one floor below her was pure torture to the girl.

 

“ _Und deshalb, Ich glaube dass der Naturwissenschaften ist sehr wichtig für unsere Zukunft!”_

 

Kagami rolled her eyes, openly, something she wouldn’t have done had Marinette been there. She was bored out of her mind and… Was his name Enzo? Whatever his name was, his German grammar was dreadful and he hadn’t even bothered with the accent at all. Was it really that hard? She didn’t like the classroom, its ambiance, the students. They looked as though they were trying to follow whatever Enzo had just tried to say, and she couldn’t understand why. She had a hard time interacting with her classmates when they weren’t Marinette’s friends, in fact. She didn’t find them interesting at all at first glance, and they hadn’t tried to initiate any sort of conversation with her. 

 

No one sat next to her anyway, so why even bother? She didn’t find the energy or the motivation for any of this, really, Marinette, Nino Alya and Adrien were more than enough, she often told herself, and so it didn’t really matter if the other people at school were little more than NPCs to her. She really needed a break, she thought. Between school, fencing practice and trying to fully settle in, which meant busy weekends with her mother. Which meant stressful shopping sessions most of the time, unless she had fencing lessons like this Saturday. All in all, she had very little time to focus on other things she liked outside of sabre fencing. In a few more weeks, it would be a little less tense. Tonight would be a little more entertaining than most nights, she thought. 

 

There was some new Ladybug footage online, which meant that Alya would probably run a live show with some friends of hers. Kagami would watch it if she had nothing better to do, and knowing how easy the homework was — she hardly needed to work at all, really, she would be done in a matter of minutes — it would be what she’d do, until Mother came home. And maybe text Marinette too, if she wasn’t too tired. Somehow, she had the feeling that her friend was overworked lately.

 

Kagami sighed and rolled her eyes quite a lot until the bell rang. The German teacher freed her and the room was immediately filled with the sound of lively conversation. Kagami snatched her earphones from her pocket as soon as she walked out of the classroom and untangled them carefully as she came out of lycée Carnot, not paying attention to the students chatting and the few ones smoking nearby. It was a Thursday, and that meant going back home right away, no fencing practice, no curricular activities, nothing. She hadn’t dared ask Marinette if she wanted to walk home with her. That would have been silly anyway, Kagami thought, she knew that her friend lived above her parent’s bakery but she had never been there. She had no idea where it was, maybe it was the complete opposite direction to hers. 

 

Kagami wasn’t creepy enough to stalk Marinette or to google every single aspect of her life. Marinette’s Facebook account was even more secretive than hers, she only posted new things every so often, and her address had never popped up in any of these posts. Kagami decided she would ask Marinette were she lived when it would feel appropriate to ask such a question. And so she was alone as she made her way to the overcrowded Métro station. Jagged Stone was doing nothing to lighten up her mood, but at least it gave her the energy she needed for the moment. She could understand what Marinette enjoyed in this music, the sheer power of the riffs.

 

Marinette felt light on her feet and almost wanted to dance. Karim had accepted her apology and even admitted that his behaviour had been uncalled for, and knowing that people were trying to get better was really heartwarming. She needed an uplifting, relaxing song, she thought as she grabbed her headphones from her bag. She scrolled through dozens of playlist on her phone, many of them made by Nino, until she found the right one and hit the play button. She didn’t recognise the song, but she knew she liked it, the guitar sample — it was something she wanted to learn— and the beat the drum kit played, the way the strings made their apparition subtly, at the right moment, the atmosphere. It wasn’t the kind of music she usually listened to, but it was exactly what she had needed. 

 

She walked to the beat, enjoyed the evening light, not wanting to end the moment by immediately checking her phone to find out what the song was. When she finally checked, she had a little surprise. Nujabe’s Aruarian Dance, that had been one of Kagami’s few suggestions. That, Marinette decided, would be the subject of their conversation tonight. She wondered if Nino and Kagami talked about music. If they didn’t yet, she would bring up the topic innocently when the moment would be right. She finally arrived home, waved at her parents ran upstairs and collapsed on her bed. She would chat with Kagami later. 

 

Kagami unlocked the door to her flat. “ _I’m home!_ ” But of course, no voice answered her. Mother was still busy teaching her own fencing classes at the university. She took off her shoes carefully before she went to the bathroom to wash her hands.  She liked the noise the wooden floor in the corridor made when she stepped on it, the sound of the ceramic tiles on the bathroom floor. She liked the sound of the rushing water against the marble of the bathroom sink. She liked the soft ticking noise of the clock. 

 

Her hands clean, Kagami  went straight to her room, not bothering to look around as she sat down in her chair and turned her computer on. I need to buy some more potted plants, she thought. She hoped her eucalyptus was doing well in Japan. One hour before the beginning of the Ladybug Live Show, and Mother would be home around half past nine. Plenty of time for herself! First, she’d do her homework, then she’d work out and take a bath. Maybe practice the cello if she felt like it. 

 

She hurriedly opened her handbag. There wasn’t much that needed to be done after all. She dashed her mathematics in four minutes but she didn’t have to check twice to know that there were no mistakes. She would have rather devoted her intelligence to something else, and she knew she had plenty of it. She didn’t enjoy it one bit, she found it dull, completely uninteresting, even, but she would not skip it completely. She skimmed through her social sciences textbook instead. 

 

She hated reading heavily these heavily truncated texts that looked nothing like the originals. She didn’t care if some of the kids thought it was not a real thing, or just a way to legitimate some behaviours, they had it all wrong. She would read Bourdieu and maybe even Lordon. Kagami had finished her homework faster than she had originally planned. She browsed through her personal library — a little too empty for her taste, she would have to remedy that soon. She settle for a few pages of André Gide’s _Paludes_. 

 

The bedroom was silent, if it weren’t for Marinette’s soft Tikki jumped up and down Marinette’s bed, hoping to get a reaction from her. She knew it, her young Ladybug would be quite panicked if she didn’t do what she had to right now. It seemed that her plan had worked. Marinette woke up lazily, got out of bed. Once she was completely ready for her homework, she read her exercise sheet carefully and answered each question with great care, checking twice for every result she had. She didn’t want to make silly mistakes in her equations, after all. Maths were alright, she guessed, It wasn’t all that hard, if she had to be honest with herself, but she kept a slow pace until she was fully done with it. She was still a little sleepy when she helped her parents close the bakery, but at least she was quite happy to help them. Finally, Sabine called it a day. 

 

Tonight was Tom’s turn to get dinner ready, and tonight, Tom said triumphantly, was pizza. He had decided to use his grandmother’s legendary super secret recipe, which he had reworked in secret so that there wouldn’t be any meat on it. It had been hard, it had taken months but his spouse and daughter convinced him that his health would only get better if he stopped eating that much meat. Tom had begrudgingly agreed. In the end, he didn’t regret this decision, not once. He should have known that eating that much salami wasn’t good for his heart. He felt much better now.

 

The bakery still sold meat pies, although less  than before, but in the Dupain-Cheng household, meat had become almost unheard of. And so, Tom arrived in the kitchen, covered in flour but looking quite happy with himself. He bowed to an invisible audience before he presented his wife and daughter his masterpiece. It looked quite mouth-watering. Sabine, Marinette and Tom shared a nice meal together. Between mouthfuls of homemade pizza, Marinette couldn’t help but wonder how Alya’s conference was going.

 

Kagami took off her sweat-soaked tank top and threw it nervously in the laundry basket. Her workout session had gone well, of course, but something else irritated her to no end. Kagami had decided to mute the Ladybug Live Show and to take a bath with another background noise instead. Poor Alya, stuck in this conference room surrounded that participants that didn’t let her finish her sentences. She particularly hated that one man wearing a filthy-looking Ladybug t-shirt, green cargo shorts and fingerless gloves. Why did he have to start every single one of his sentences with “Actually”? Who did he think he was? Poor, poor Alya indeed. And they hadn’t spoken about anything new, really, they had simply rehashed what she had read many times over. It couldn’t be helped, she guessed. Otakus had always creeped her out, and she guessed some of Ladybug’s fans were no different. It didn’t mean that she would get rid of her small Ladybug shrine yet, but… She’d rethink it, maybe. 

 

Her bath was ready. How her mother had managed to get them a bath so big and almost as deep as the one they had in her grandparent’s house, Kagami didn’t know. She turned the radio on — France Musique, of course, as always — and glanced at her naked reflection in the mirror. Was she attractive? Did she find herself attractive? She was alright, she guessed. Mother often told her how pretty she found her, but she didn’t know what to think of it. She traced a finger along her collarbone. She guessed Mother wasn’t completely wrong. She didn’t feel like a child anymore, and she had grown more and more used to this shape of hers. Not flawless, but hers nonetheless. She would take good care of it. 

 

She hummed as she entered into the warm water. Janáček’s Sinfonietta played as she thought about what she’d do next, maybe review the footage of Ladybug’s latest fight, chat with Marinette and go superhero watching. She hadn’t bought night vision spectacles for nothing. But for now, she simply enjoyed her bath. 

 

Marinette was starting to get really tired. Still, she kept on doodling in her sketchbook. She had given up designing new clothes after a few disastrous tries. It had felt forced. And so, she drew other things instead. Objects in her room, things in her mind. She reworked a few sketches she had made during the day. The subjects of these sketches were often a dreamy boy with gorgeous green eyes and blond hair. She didn’t see him nearly as often as before, but she somehow felt as though she was starting to know him a little better. She had stopped stammering around him, and them being teamed up in that English class had helped them actually talk to each other. He was polite, very polite in fact, and as friendly as always. 

 

But then again, he tried to be friendly to everyone. She blinked and dropped her pencil. Her sketch didn’t look like Adrien at all, in fact it didn’t look like anyone she knew. She decided to draw something else, and settled for two fencers, one lunging at their opponent who parried the blade. She was having a hard time giving the illusion of movement. She’d have to ask Kagami to show her. And she’d have to ask her to actually teach her. Maybe this week-end? She grabbed her phone as silently as possible, making sure not to disturb Tikki. Her kwami took most of the exertion, it seemed, and Marinette could never thank her enough for that. She sent Alya a short text asking her how that conference had went, and a slightly longer one to Kagami asking her about fencing practice, and resumed sketching afterwards. 

 

Kagami cracked her fingers, satisfied with the message she had written to Alya. She wasn’t sure if her “Let’s thank Ladybug and Chat Noir” Project would make it to the front page of the Ladyblog, but she would have tried anyway. She watched the footage again, for the fifth or sixth time this evening. Ladybug was so brave, she looked as though she could solve everything. She would keep her Ladyshrine for now, she decided. It didn’t cause any harm, now, would it? She wondered if Marinette had seen the videos yet. 

 

She opened her cello case, took her bow and started rosining it. She tuned her instrument and started to play. Ligeti’s sonata for cello wasn’t easy, but she enjoyed it greatly. She was halfway through the second movement when her phone buzzed, at the exact same moment the doorbell rung. She put the instrument back in its case carefully but quickly. Whoever had texted her would have to wait, she had more urgent matters to deal with. Kagami hastily pocketed her phone in her pyjama bottoms, got out of her room and opened the front door slowly, stepping back as she did so. Mother was home. 

 

“ _I’m home_ ,” Itsuko Tsurugi said in a tired voice, and her daughter gave a “ _Welcome home!_ ” in response. Itsuko was tired but satisfied, her hair still wet from the shower she must have have had while in the university. Itsuko removed her shoes and lined them up next to Kagami’s. She hung her pristine blue  trench coat on the coat stand before she walked to the kitchen, which still looked like a work in construction, but Kagami held a hand before she could made her way to the cooker.  “ _Leave it to me,_ ” the gesture seemed to mean. And so, Itsuko Tsurugi watched her daughter mince eggplants, courgettes and red pepper effortlessly and put them in the frying pan, allowing them to simmer slowly. She cooked soba noodles in the mean time. Itsuko sipped on her green tea and savoured every moment of it. Kagami checked her phone and almost smiled to herself.

 

“ _Thanks for the meal!_ ”

 

 

“ _So, how is school?_ ” Itsuko asked. “ _Please, there’s no need to embellish the story for me, I’m not your father_ ,” she added when her daughter opened her mouth almost too quickly. “ _I hope you dont feel too lonely… Have you made friends yet? I know that it isn’t always easy for you. I know I shouldn’t worry but it can’t be helped._ ”

 

_“I… I miss my friends in Tokyo, Mo—”_

 

 _“Please, Kagami, we’ve already discussed it…_ ” Itsuko looked almost sad _._ “ _Try to call me ‘Mum’, please? There’s no need to be this formal when we’re at home…”_

 

“ _Oh_ …” Kagami felt quite lost. “ _Of course, M-Mum. Well… I miss Aiko and Taneda and… Everyone really, I know it’s silly. I don’t feel lonely here, I think I made a few friends, but it doesn’t feel the same. I don’t think my grades will be a problem but I’m not very passionate about any of it. It isn’t always as exciting as I hoped it would be… Safe for fencing, of course, M. D’Argencourt is really great._ ”

 

“ _That, he is,_ ” Itsuko agreed. “ _He told me that he’s quite impressed with your fencing, I’m very glad. About your friends… I miss my old friends back in Tokyo too. Would you like to invite your friends over someday? The flat is still messy but with a little work I’m sure it could look great. Is there anything I can do to help?_ ”

 

“ _Well I…_ ” Mothe—Mum had started to show this side of her a lot more often now that they were away from Japan. Kagami decided that she liked it. “ _Maybe not invite them, at least not for now, but there’s that friend… Well, she wants to start fencing lessons, and I wondered if you and M. D’Argencourt could find us a salle for Saturday before my usual practice time…_ ”

 

“I’ll see what I can do,” Itsuko said in a French that sounded much better than the one she had spoken in June. “Is she a good friend?”

 

“Yes, a very good friend.” Why did she sound like Adrien Agreste right now? The kitchen settled into a confortable silence and Itsuko excused herself. Kagami finished doing the washing up — they had yet to buy a dishwasher— and checked her phone again. She sent Marinette a quick text, opened the French window to the balcony and settled into the deckchair. Tonight, she’d go Ladybug watching for the first time. And waited. And waited. And waited. She was glad to have Marinette to keep her company while she waited for Ladybug to show up, if she showed up at all. It helped her feel warmer. Earphones in her ears, Kagami trained her binoculars on the Eiffel Tower. At least, Debussy would keep her company.

 

She was sure she had just spotted a silhouette standing on on a rooftop nearby, but she wasn’t so sure. That had to be a trick of the light, maybe the night vision didn’t work that well after all. She kept on watching, growing more and more tired with every minute that passed. She noted her observations in her newly bought polka-dotted Ladybug notebook. In her bed, Marinette answered Kagami’s texts as they came as her vision turned blurrier and blurrier. She was too tired for patrol tonight. She knew Chat Noir would be out, but she was too exhausted for it. He wouldn’t mind, she was sure, Paris wouldn’t mind. Kagami blinked. She was pretty sure she had seen the silhouette do a cartwheel followed by a backflip. It was almost midnight when Marinette bade Kagami goodnight and advised her go to get some rest soon. There was no answer. 

 

A few minutes later, Itsuko Tsurugi carried the sleeping form of her daughter to bed as delicately as she could so that she wouldn’t wake up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir!
> 
> Next chapter, the long awaited fencing practice!
> 
> First of all, sorry for the purposefully terrible German. Entschuldigung. Es tut mir leid… Ich kann nicht so gut Deutsch, aber ich weiß, dass es gar nicht korrekt war.
> 
> And now, the music and books and authors mentioned in the excerpt!
> 
> Pierre Bourdieu is quite hard to read (at least it was for me, at the beginning and even now) but he really was one of the greatest French sociologists, an interesting philosopher too. His work is mostly a social critique of many things, from language to the judgment of taste, gender dynamics. _Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste_ , _Language and symbolic power_ and _Masculine Domination_ are worth your time.
> 
> Frederic Lordon is an economist, a director of research in political sciences, whom I really like. He often writes in _Le Monde Diplomatique_ , but his work is not often translated in French. Anyway, _Willing Slaves of Capital_ is really a valuable book.
> 
> Also, André Gide is quite interesting, but you may know him better for _The Counterfeiters_. He's a novelist. 
> 
> [Nujabe’s Aruarian Dance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9hwjQBQFIo) is really great, anything by Nujabe, to be honest.
> 
> [Janáček’s Sinfonietta](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3p2XxjuV0Y), and yes, that's a 1Q84 reference.
> 
> [Ligeti’s sonata for cello/a>! I'm only a pianist and occasional ukulele player but if I happen to learn how to play the cello, that's one of the things I want to play. Also, yes, neckbeards gross me out, I'm not sorry for saying that. Follow me on Tumblr ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s92f3CW9IdQ)[here](https://algernoninwonderland.tumblr.com), I post previews for the incoming chapters and I sometimes post writing tips about France, also I complain about my depression among other things. Submit your art for this fic if you feel like it or ask me stuff, who knows, I might answer! Maybe.
> 
> Sadly enough, I'm still French, my mistakes are not intentional but they're still there, plaguing this text… 
> 
> À jeudi!


	6. Duel 6 : Right Foot; Left Foot, Now Go Even Faster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _Warning: this chapter has mentions of child abuse. Also, racism._  
>  Please, read the end note for this chapter, it is quite important for the update schedule and all.

Marinette hesitantly looked at Kagami’s text then at the doorway that supposedly lead to the gymnasium. So this was where she was meant to be. She opened the door and shut it behind her immediately after. She was now inside the empty fencing hall. She cleared her throat once, but there was no reaction. She walked to the centre of the room, each of her her steps echoed quite loudly. The wooden decor gave an ancient charm to the place, she thought as she clapped in her hands, the sound reverberating. She turned her head right and left. No one to watch her, and Kagami nowhere to be found. She would change when she arrived, she thought. And so, Marinette started her gymnastics routine. She stretched first, until she was fully ready, and started with a simple cartwheel. 

 

Being Ladybug had made her faster, stronger. By saving Paris, she had also started to turn into quite a proficient acrobat outside the suit. She tried a butterfly twist and successfully landed on her feet. She regained her equilibrium and continued her routine. A few backflips followed, and she didn’t notice than the door had opened until she decided to walk on her hands. This was the position in which Marinette looked at Kagami at last. Marinette waved at her, using only one hand to support the weigh of her body as she did so. 

 

Kagami seemed quite confused and even more amazed at the same time. Marinette’s frame should have given it away, yet she had never thought the girl to be such an accomplished gymnast. Marinette let herself fall down from her position, rolled on the floor and scrambled to her feet. It was a very disheveled girl who met Kagami’s wide open eyes, her right pigtail almost completely undone. She is very cute that way, Kagami thought, but she kept it to herself. 

 

“Glad you came,“ Kagami said, her mouth incredibly dry, once she managed to regain her composure. She had wanted to make a cool and classy entrance that would have impressed Marinette greatly, but she guessed there was no use to it anymore. She had even rehearsed a small speech in front of her mirror— not that anyone needed to know that— but there was no use to it anymore. “Here, let me show you the I prepared some stuff for you to wear.” Great, Kagami shouted to herself mentally, you sounded oh so very smart here. 

 

Nonetheless, she lead the way to the newly renovated changing rooms, which were conveniently empty for a little while. They would have a full hour to practice before Kagami’s real fencing lessons would begin — not with M. D’Argencourt but with her mother and older students of hers. How she wished they had more time for this… Marinette oohed as she saw the gear spread out before her eyes. 

 

Of course, she already knew the name of every item, she had come well prepared, but she decided to let Kagami tell her all about them nonetheless. It would certainly be a little more lively that way. Kagami’s eyes brightened as she began her small lecture with a small introduction on the necessity of a proper fencing gear. She looks so beautiful, even more so when she talks about things she’s passionate about, Marinette thought… She behaved so differently around most other students. 

 

“… And so, let’s start with the basics,” Kagami said. “The shoes are… Quite obvious, I guess, but you’ll notice the flat soles. I hope you’ll get used to it quickly.” Marinette nodded and that was the cue for Kagami to continue, more confidently. Marinette wasn’t only being polite, she looked genuinely interested in what she had to say! Could she even get more likeable? Kagami seemed to keep herself from sounding too excited about explaining it, but her eyes betrayed her. “Moving on, the socks! They’re quite long, they go up to the knee, and that’s where the breeches come next, they end below the knee. Those are mine but I think they’ll suit you, you’re barely smaller than me.

 

“You’ve got the plastron to protect your sword arm and the jacket, the one for sabre fencing like this one is different from foil and épée jackets, I’ll tell you about it someday. It won’t stop you from feeling the impact of each hit, but believe me, it’s a lot better than fencing without, I’m pretty sure that’s not allowed at all. The glove is for your sword hand. Then you’ve got the mask, please make sure the bib is in good shape, I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t think we’ll use it just now so don’t put it on just yet. Finally, the lamé, it covers the whole target area, as you know. That one has sleeves because that’s a sabre lamé. And… I guess that’s it! If you’ve got any more questions…”

 

“So, that’s the chest protector, right?” Marinette said, pointing to the plastic garment and Kagami shifted uncomfortably. “Do I have to wear it? I mean, it looks pretty uncomfortable…”

 

“Believe me, you don’t want bruises on your boobs, not that way,” Kagami blurted before she could put a hand over her mouth to stop herself from being so embarrassing. She turned redder than her fencing jacket. But instead of pointing out how awkward that had been the way Kagami feared she would, Marinette giggled, whispered a “I won’t forget that” and started unbuttoning her shirt. Kagami hadn’t suspected she could turn this red. She squeaked a small “I’ll let you get changed, I’ll be waiting for you outside with a sabre so that we can start this lesson” and ran out of the changing room. 

 

She tried to slow down the beat of her heart, she tried to stop the vision she had just witnessed from reappearing in her head. It didn’t quite work, at all. She was a little scared, if she had to be honest with herself. as she meant to have this kind of thoughts? Was she allowed to have these kind of thoughts about Marinette, about girls? It felt so weird, almost scary, and she didn’t want to be afraid. She needed some help to figure it out. Then it struck her. She didn’t know who to ask. Definitely not Father. If it turned out that she really was attracted to girl, and not completely insane, things with Father would be even more embarrassing. She didn’t even want to think about Grandfather. Who, then? Maybe Aiko or Alya maybe, once she’d know her better? 

 

She’d have to find a way to word it properly if she wanted to ask them about it. Maybe she could ask mo—mum? She had never had these thoughts about men, but she had assumed that it would eventually come one day. How would mum react? Would she hate her daughter? Kagami had never felt like a normal person, but never for these reasons. Finally, a fully equipped Marinette waved at her. Kagami could already see her being taught by M. D’Argencourt next year. 

 

“I guess there’s no need to remind you about the anatomy of the sabre, so to speak. As you know, it’s a thrusting weapon and a cutting weapon too. Here, take this one,” she said, and Marinette carefully took the sabre she was handed in her hand. “As you know, our first goal is not to make fancy moves but to be efficient. Your target is not your opponent’s sword, forget every movie you’ve seen starring Errol Flynn, that’s fun to watch but definitely not what we want here. Sabre fencing is the the combination of quick thinking, accuracy,  and efficient footwork, and only a few can master it” Kagami ended in a proud tone. 

 

“Wow… You’ve made it this far all by yourself, that’s really impressive, ” Marinette whispered, completely captivated by the other girl. What she hadn’t expected was the other girl’s reaction. Her amber eyes were almost sad.

 

“No one is self-made, Marinette, no one, whoever told you that… It’s complete bullshit,” Kagami said with a pained expression. “If it weren’t for my family, I don’t think I could have become so proficient. They knew the best fencing instructors, my grandfather and my mother are some of the best fencers ever, I mean, I even had personal instructors all to myself when I was younger, people to encourage me to become the best! They have the money, I mean, we could afford moving to Paris. If I had happened to be born someone else than Kagami Tsurugi, if I had wanted to become a great fencer… I don’t think it would have worked that way. I mean, sure, willpower and all, but that’s not enough. If you don’t know the right people, it takes so much time.

 

“If you’re lucky, your performance will get you noticed, but it’s so rare. And even then, it’s not your own work that’ll give you the opportunity to become a champion, but someone else noticing you. Sure, I played a role in it all, but that’s only part of it… I’ve been moulded by other people too. I mean, look at you! If you had wanted to start fencing but didn’t know anyone to introduce you to it, what would you have done? Would you even have wanted to start fencing at all? I don’t think many people will ever be as good as I am, not because they’re less talented, but because they didn’t have the material means and the relations they need.” Marinette remained speechless, and Kagami cleared her throat. “So anyway, we won’t need our fencing masks for that. let’s start with the most basic position, en garde, OK?”

 

“Oh, right,” Marinette said. “ _Keep your stance wide, keep your body lowered, as you’re moving forward balance is the key_ ,” she sung to herself as she shifted her feet until she found her en garde stance, which was quite good for a beginner. “You so have to watch this show! I mean, definitely not the French dub, but… I’ll send you a link someday!”

 

Kagami looked positively impressed, and silently praised Marinette’s stance. She hesitated before she put her hand on Marinette’s shoulders to correct her posture slightly, and the touch, the feel of Marinette’s skin under the fabric sent sparks through her body, and although she didn’t know it, it felt the same for Marinette. She tried to focus on her student instead. Slowly, Marinette straightened up a little, her body properly turned and soon it would be protected by her sword arm, Marinette had chosen her left one, it was what she was going for when she moved Marinette’s arm slightly to the right and lowered it a little, making sure not to have to touch the girl more than needed. Kagami would have instantly combusted if she had touched her any more than now, if she wasn’t wearing the lamé and the jacket under it. 

 

“Good, we’re almost there,” Kagami said appraisingly. “You’ve done that before, haven’t you? It shows.” She was patient and kind to Marinette, more patient than with anyone else, and kinder too. Had it been one of her fellow fencers, or a student from Carnot, safe for Alya Nino or Adrien, had it been anyone else, really, she wouldn’t have bothered. Was she wrong for behaving that way? She didn’t want to think about it right now, and she decided to fully focus on Marinette and Marinette only. Kagami stepped back and looked at the other girl and smirked. Her en garde stance was almost perfect, all that was left to do was…

 

“Again!” Kagami said. “I’ll do it next to you, and we’ll try to hold the pose for thirty seconds each time. If you’re OK with me telling you what to do, that is, if you want to do something else please tell me about it, I mean, I’d totally understand if you changed your mind.” Marinette shook her head and so, they started the drill. Ten minutes later, Marinette was a little unnerved and her body ached a little. It wasn’t that Marinette didn’t have the stamina for that, she could have continued the exercise for hours if that was required, and she hadn’t broken out in a sweat yet. 

 

The real difficulty was that she was used to moving and jumping around a lot, not staying so static for such a long time. How could Kagami make it seem so easy? Years and years of training with people who had pushed her to continue, she guessed. Kagami seemed to do it without even giving much thought about it. Marinette understood why she had asked her to bring a water bottle. Kagami stepped back until she faced Marinette, a few metres of distance between them. She motioned for Marinette to put on her fencing mask.

 

“I want to show you the most basic attack but it might sting a little, we can do something else if you want but I think that you knowing that should be important. If you say yes, I won’t go easy on you,” Kagami warned before she put on her own fencing mask.

 

 “Bring it on,” Marinette said. She would have to act as though her reflexes were slower than they actually were, but— “OUCH!”

 

Kagami immediately removed her helmet, dropped her sabre and looked at Marinette worriedly, she couldn’t guess what expression she wore under the fencing mask. “I’m so sorry,” she started, ” I thought it would be a good idea but I hurt you and I’m sorry so—”

 

“It’s alright, Kagami,” Marinette reassured her, “I was mostly surprised. But you’re right, it stings, quite a lot actually. How are you not covered in bruises all the time?”

 

“I used to be, believe me, and my sword arm is always a little painful after my fencing lessons, I even had to wear long-sleeved shirts in the summer when I was younger because Father didn’t want my teachers to believe that I was a battered child who endured constant abuse at home. It was really the fencing, in fact,” Kagami added when she saw Marinette’s horrified expression. “And that’s why most fencers rely on parries more than on their abilities to dodge.”

 

“So that was a lunge, right?” Marinette asked. “It looked complicated, how do you not lose balance? Can you show me?”

 

“So, I’ll describe my actions as they happen. First, I break from my en garde stance, and I extend my front leg from the knee and push my front heel. I’m careful not to bend my ankle or to lift up the ball of that foot, see? It means my rear leg has to do the pushing and my rear arm counterbalances the motion. See, my torso remains relatively still. And I thrust my sword arm. Only, it doesn’t take more than one second or two. Of course, there are a few more complications when there’s an opponent facing you. And it feels like a different thing when you do it. I wouldn’t expect anyone to make it  Want to try it? Oh, and also, put your fencing mask back on, I don’t want you to lose an eye.”

 

Marinette nodded and tried. And groaned as she lost her balance halfway through the motion. She felt slow and clumsy. Kagami looked so graceful when she lunged, once again it looked as though she had been doing that all her life, and that was probably the case. She fell down on her third try but she got back on her feet before Kagami could help her up and continued. That was hard, focusing on the perfect motion of her feet while being aware that she had to move her hands a certain way, adding that to the fact that her opponent would have the opportunity to hit her first… But she kept on trying, and on her sixteenth try, she managed to hit Kagami. Or she thought she did. Kagami simply shrugged and the gesture said it all. That had been more of a caress than an actual hit. She needed to actually put some weight in the sword arm, not only in her feet. 

 

And so she started again. And again. And again, until she noticed how the vibration that travelled down her arm were different from the ones before. She put a little more strength each time until she found the perfect amount of pressure. That was it. And so, she continued until Kagami parried the blade of Marinette’s sabre and beat it away when the other girl expected it the least. She lost her momentum and fell down. That was so… Vexing. She took Kagami’s outstretched arm gratefully. It was a simple contact, skin to skin, hand to hand, but there was something about it that made Kagami’s skin tingle, something about it that awoke the start of a sensation within Marinette. 

 

“And that,” Kagami said loudly, letting go of Marinette’s hand, “was a parry, a beat parry, if we have to be precise here. You already know the use for such moves. Look, we don’t have much time left, but let’s try it, if you want to! We won’t go into the subtleties for now, I just want you to understand the feel of it.”

 

“I’d really like that. Does that mean I’m going to get covered in bruises during the next ten minutes?”

 

“Don’t worry, that won’t happen. I’ll go easy on you this time.”

 

And Kagami stayed true to her words. Her movement were slower, much slower than what Marinette had seen when she had faced Adrien or even Vincent. Which didn’t mean that Marinette managed to parry right away, and she took a fair share of hits before she managed to parry Kagami’s thrust. Each time, of course, Kagami had explained what had gone wrong, it quickly paid off. They would continue with the cutting motion another day, Kagami decided, if Marinette was still interested in learning sabre fencing with her. 

 

They lost track of time as they continued to practice this simple exercise, but they didn’t lose their focus. Marinette was a fast learner with a great ability to adapt, which made Kagami think of someone, although she couldn’t quite pinpoint who it was with certainty. Oh, she would make her a good fencer, worthy of the D’Argencourt academy. Maybe it was too late for Marinette to become a champion, but this wasn’t the reason why she had come to Kagami in the first place, now, was it? She decided that she liked it here, with Marinette, and that it was one of her best Saturdays in France yet. 

 

That was, until the doors to the fencing room opened in a loud clatter and a small group of university students, she guessed they could not be older than twenty-five, barged in noisily. Marinette removed her mask to greet them, and Kagami did the same. She recognised a few of them. She had a bad feeling about it. They were not greeted with smiles, but scowls, and Kagami was pretty sure she had heard one of the girls whisper something about “fucking Chinese everywhere” that “should stick to karate chops”. Marinette clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. Kagami was too shocked to say anything, but there was something that made her stomach churned with complete disgust. 

 

Marinette looked at the clock — she had to leave in about three minutes— and made her way to the changing rooms, giving the small crowd quite a nice view of her middle finger, which was received with sniggers and heckles that didn’t falter when the door to the changing room slammed shut. If Tikki hadn’t stayed in Marinette’s purse, with the rest of Marinette’s things, she would have turned into a kwami of pure destruction and anger. The small group burst into a small fit of laughter, and so, Kagami simply glared at them, an icy glare that made the temperature drop instantly. They fell silent.

 

When Marinette finally came out of the room, Kagami walked with her for a little while, still in her fencing gear, a worried look on her face. Why did it have to go so wrong, why did they have to show up earlier than she had planned? They stopped in the middle of the corridor.

 

“Look, I really like fencing with you,” Marinette said and she couldn’t quite conceal the anger in her voice. “I had a great time but these guys… I don’t know if I’d be ready to continue having fencing classes here, and I’m sorry if that sounds rude, I mean, it’s what they are, but with these guys acting like complete racist pricks, I don’t think I’ll feel confortable here if that continues. I want to keep on learning with you, I like it a lot when you do,” she blushed, “if you’re still willing to teach me, that is, I mean…”

 

“Well…” Kagami’s heart skipped a beat. Marinette wanted them to fence together again. She had enjoyed it. “Don’t worry about them. My mum is their instructor, I mean, she’s my instructor too but I’ll tell her about it. Believe me, that won’t ever happen again. She can be quite scary when she’s angry, and no one wants to see that and only a few have lived though it? So let’s do it again in two weeks, or even before at the D’Argencourt Academy if you feel like it?”

 

Marinette simply smiled at Kagami, fondness in her blue eyes before she gave her a final goodbye and left the building. Kagami’s heart didn’t stop fluttering as she slowly walked back to the fencing hall for her lesson. She didn't quite know what to do about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir.
> 
> Next chapter, eating curry, drawing things and awkwardness.
> 
> I will soon post something about racism in France. Just know that these kinds of comment are very mainstream and even worse.
> 
> Also, Stephen Galaxy references, lots of them. And the French dub is horrendous. I think Marinette discovered the show when she was babysitting Manon and really enjoyed it so she kept on watching it in English on her own.
> 
> And now, about the update schedule and all of that.
> 
> Depression is something I've been struggling with for quite a few years now, and let's simply state that I'm typing this from my bed, which I haven't left for three days now because of how terrible everything feels. It's incredibly shitty. I either feel nothing, or I simply don't want to exist. Life's pretty shit. I'm pretty shit. I can't focus on writing satisfactory content or simply doing things I usually enjoy. Also, I write "shit" quite a lot, apparently.
> 
> I will finish this fic, but I cannot promise that there will be a new chapter next Monday or next Thursday. It will be finished, everything has been planned. Right now, I can't get to it, it doesn't feel like it matters, nothing feels like it does and I hate that but I can't block it.
> 
> I'll keep you updated on Tumblr [here](https://algernoninwonderland.tumblr.com), if you can stand me writing boring stuff about not wanting to be alive and my life being a constant source of disappointment.
> 
> I am sorry for letting you down.
> 
> À bientôt.


	7. Duel 7: Entre Ami.e.s

“Alya and Nino want to put their things in their lockers, is there anything you’d like to put in your own?”

 

“No, thanks for asking, Marinette, I’ll just wait for you all outside.”

 

Kagami made her way through a tide of students, trying her best to keep as much distance as she could between them and herself. She sped up her pace when she believed to have spotted a small bob of wavy brown hair a few meters behind her. She didn’t want to have to deal with Gustave right now, she had much better things to do anyway. She tried to walk a little faster, and fortunately, he disappeared from her sight. She breathed a small sigh of relief. So much for avoiding unwanted company…

 

The end of September had gone by too quickly, and the beginning of October too. The truth be told, these had been busy weeks, filled with tests and homework, more and more fencing classes. Things had started to move a little, slowly but surely. Itsuko and Kagami’s flat looked less and less like a battlefield and more and more like a place one could fully live in, and the cardboard boxes that had once cluttered up the kitchen, the living room and Kagami’s bedroom started to disappear discretely into the recycling bin. And the flat felt homely, even more now that they had bought houseplants. Little things…

 

Everyone had started to make new friends, although it wasn’t always easy. Marinette’s old friend for collège had been split up in different classes, but it didn’t stop them from keeping connections with one another. Marinette could be quite the social butterfly, even more than Kagami had suspected, but the same couldn’t be said about herself. Kagami still had a hard time not purposefully isolating herself from the rest of her peers when Marinette, Adrien, Nino or Alya weren’t around. 

 

Kagami couldn’t have cared less for the rest of the students, she hadn’t bothered trying to purposefully remember their names —still, she had— and quite honestly she didn’t want anything to do with most of them. She didn’t know them, but she was almost sure they were dull people with dull little lives, conformist doormats and background characters at best. They had to be, right ? She was having a harder time trying not to roll her eyes all the time when one of them dared open their mouth. She hoped Marinette hadn’t noticed that. She kept an aloof demeanour when she was sure none of her friends were watching, and only talked to the others when it was necessary. 

 

Still, she was no longer completely alone in their absence. Marjane Khadivi, an impressively clever and equally soft-spoken girl with incredibly long dark brown hair had decided to sit next to her in ancient Greek class one day. Marjane had simply asked Kagami about the book she was reading — she wasn’t that much of a manga reader but she had chosen a somewhat lighter read that day, Naoki Urasawa’s _Billy Bat_ — and they had ended up talking a lot more than any of them had first expected. They sometimes worked in the school library together, and Adrien often joined them to work on literature from time to time, pretexting that his teacher was horrific.

 

Kagami had truly gotten to know Kim when they had ended up playing volleyball in the same team. Saying that these two were unstoppable together would have been an understatement. Kim wasn’t only the jock Kagami had believed him to be. He may not have been a rocket scientist like Max, but he cared.  She sometimes shared comfortable silences with Nathanaël too, and he often came to draw during her fencing lessons. But other than that, she rarely spoke to the other students unless she absolutely had to. 

 

Kagami didn’t mind the drizzly weather outside, she had brought an umbrella, she almost didn’t mind having mathematics this afternoon, they were minor annoyances at best. Today would be much more than a regular, unexciting day at school that would have left a bland taste in her mouth. Today, Marinette had invited her over for lunch. Nino and Alya were invited too, and she was glad for that. The more the merrier, wasn’t it so? Kagami guessed they were regulars at Marinette’s home. She hoped she’d become one too, but today would be a first for her. And so, she waited for them in front of the lycée’s entrance. It wasn’t a long wait, and very soon, the four of them were walking down avenue de Villiers. 

 

Nino snuck up under Kagami’s umbrella and took the wooden crook handle after he asked for her permission. He was taller than her, after all. She didn’t mind Nino, he wasn’t as loud as most of the boys at school, not as rude as them, and it didn’t look as though he wanted something out of her. He had that tendency to call everyone “dude”, but she didn’t mind that. The plane trees’s leaves were slowly turning a soft dark copper hue, soon, she thought, they would be strewn over the sidewalks. Alya seemed to enjoy the crisp noise they made when she stepped on them purposefully, not missing a single one. 

 

After about ten minutes of a rather slow walk punctuated with snatches of conversation and the sounds of hungry stomachs, they finally arrived. Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Pâtisserie looked quite charming, and a faint smell of freshly baked bread filled the air. Marinette waved at her parents through the windowpane, and so did Nino and Alya. Kagami did the same, although awkwardly. One of the many things she didn’t know how to do, interact with most people when it wasn’t related to fencing.

 

Madame Cheng unlocked the door for them and lead them upstairs and opened the door as Nino carefully took off his cap and Alya ran a hand through his hair to tame it. And here was the living room and the kitchen, an array of somewhat mismatched furniture and bright, almost too bright colours. But somehow, it suited the place, she couldn’t have imagined it any other way. Kagami could very well see Marinette hurriedly having breakfast over the counter, enjoying freshly baked croissants. She could imagine Marinette’s lazy days, the girl laying on the couch doing absolutely nothing. A faint smile formed on Kagami’s lips.

 

It was very different from her own flat now that it was fully furnished, Itsuko Tsurugi's notion of interior design showed everywhere (thou she'd never tell her daughter that she had asked for a little help here and there). She had managed to create an atmosphere both elegant and comfortable, stylish and homely too. Now that she thought of it, Kagami really wanted to invite her friends over someday. When she looked at it, Marinette’s flat was something else, really. But not in a way she disliked. It looked like a happy place for those who lived in it. Kagami heard her own voice, and she noticed that she was oohing softly. The door closed softly and Sabine Cheng gave her guests a broad smile. 

 

“Alya, Nino, welcome, it’s so good to have you here again!” Mme Cheng said and kissed their cheeks. “And you must be Kagami! Marinette told me so much about you!” She shook her hand energetically but gently. Had Marinette told her about that? She was exactly the woman Kagami had imagined Sabine Cheng could be like, kind and benevolent, with a speck of flour on her qípáo and hair darker than her daughter. She made her feel instantly at home. Kagami didn’t know what her friends would think of her own mother.

 

“Nino, come help me with the cooking, I think it will do for you weekly practice,” she called and the boy followed her to the kitchen. She had started teaching him how to cook a few week before the summer holiday when he had come to her, driven to despair after he had somehow managed to turn his pound cake into ashes. He had managed to keep it secret from Alya, and had begged Marinette not to tell his girlfriend anything about it. In the end, it had paid off quite well

 

“That’s right, ma’am,” Nino grinned toothily. He looked around the room dramatically, then squared his shoulders exaggeratedly and took a serious expression. He carefully put on an apron Mme Cheng handed him and remained very earnest.

 

Kagami smirked at the display. Nino wouldn’t want to admit it openly, but he was putting on a show to impress his girlfriend, and she faked indifference and even faux-huffed in good humour. Alya whispered in her ear, “I only know how to cook things for my kid sisters and he always teases me about it, but he’s not too bad of a cook himself, Sabine taught him well, so I don’t really mind.”

 

“So, what should we start with, ma’am?” Nino took his phone out of his pocket and connected it to the kitchen’s sound system. “A little manouche jazz?”

 

Marinette lead them up a flight of stairs and pushed the trapdoor open. Kagami had already seen parts of the room thanks to the few photos Marinette had sent her, but being physically there changed quite a lot of things. Marinette’s room was, for a lack of a better adjective, pink. And full of cat-themed items. Kagami decided that it was one of the most adorable things ever, and completely unlike her own room in a way that she liked. Most of the furniture looked customised in a way, from the carpets to the very fabric of the chaise longue. Marinette sometimes talked about her fashion designing projects, but Kagami hadn’t suspected her to craft daily life objects like these. That certainly explained the odd curtains downstairs. 

 

She’d have to buy Marinette some houseplants for her to put on her windowsill, she thought, that was the only thing that was truly missing in this bedroom. Among other things. Like her. Stop having these thoughts, Kagami berated herself. Instead, she focused intently on Marinette’s small mineral collection on her desk, a garnet, an amethyst, for sole reasons a pearl, and a rose quartz. 

 

Alya plopped down on the chaise longue and Marinette sat on the wooden floor while Kagami’s eyes travelled across the room in a comfortable silence. There were so many details, so many things that were so, completely Marinette and she didn’t want to miss any of them, from the paper chain that ran up the wooden beam to her desk and the various design sheet she had pinned to her wall. Marinette apparently slept in a queen-sized bed, which, in Kagami’s mind, looked quite cosy. 

 

Marinette had made paper flowers she had sticked to the wall among many photographs and Kagami found it adorable. On Marinette’s photographs, her family, Alya and… How could she have missed it? There were more than a few pictures of Adrien, some looked as though they were cutouts from magazines or pictures taken without him being aware of that. Later, Kagami would learn that it used to be worse and she’d laugh about it, but for now, it didn’t feel that way at all.

 

Her stomach lurched. She didn’t know whether she should show how jealous it made her feel to see Marinette’s wall or if she should have smirked knowingly. She decided the second option would be more acceptable and if she had to be honest with herself, Kagami found it funny, in a way. She wasn’t the only one with an embarrassing shrine at home after all. And as importantly, it was quite funny. Alya understood what Kagami was smirking for and a smirk slowly crept on her own face. They stared at Marinette and their friend looked at them quizzically.

 

“Hey, what are you two smirking for?” Marinette asked. “Hey!”

 

Marinette’s reaction, when she finally connected the dots, wasn’t what Kagami had expected it would be, at least not completely. Marinette did turn into a blushing, stammering mess, but she regained her composure quickly. A few months ago, she would have first tried to find a good way to justify the presence of her shrine as being not what it looked like, this time she didn’t. In fact, she even muttered a dejected “I don’t think he sees me as anything but a friend anyway. Maybe I shouldn’t see him as anything but one too… I mean, I can’t make him love me, right? Maybe I should take these pictures down, it’s completely hopeless…”

 

The room fell in an awkward silence only filled with the pitter-patter of the rain outside —it had started pouring—  until Alya cleared her throat and oh so subtly tried to change the subject to something Marinette would certainly be more comfortable with, a subject that would make anyone feel left out, Ladybug. Kagami followed along with the idea. Alya’s theories were always a little far-fetched, and today she seemed to be exaggerating them on purpose just to lighten up the mood. And it worked, they chatted together happily, and the uncomfortable subject that was Adrien was left aside.

 

Kagami even added theories of her own, some of them jokingly nonsensical, that made Marinette laugh, and how Kagami wanted to hear her laugh again… Marinette hadn’t imagined Kagami to be a big Ladybug fan, she was always so reserved about her likes and dislikes and didn’t share things unless someone asked her. When she proposed serious hypotheses, Marinette didn’t know what to think of Kagami being so seemingly… Obsessed, as much as Alya. And so she decided to take part to the conversation before it could get too dangerous for her. She had more than a few theories of her own, some which were quite thought provoking to say the least.

 

“I mean, we don’t actually know where they come from” Marinette started, “what if Ladybug is a rogue super soldier of some sorts, engineered by the government? And Chat Noir too, obviously. That would make Hawk Moth a scientist trying to recover his precious projects using unorthodox methods and experimenting on the population… I mean, they’re trying to cover up many things Ladybug-related, they almost took your blog down and…”

 

“Oh girl I had never considered that possibility!” Alya said, almost too excitedly. “Besides, if that happens not to be true, that would make such a good AU for fan fictions!”

 

“I know! I’ve even drawn redesigns for their costumes!” Marinette beamed, and with that, she ran to her desk and came back with a sketchbook. 

 

She sat on the chaise longue, leaving room for Kagami to sit next to her, which she did gladly. Marinette opened the sketchbook and leafed through it. Kagami caught a glimpse of a series of sketches, two silhouettes dressed in fencing gears fencing facing each other. The drawings felt more accurate than anything Nathanaël had drawn, much bettere than anything Kagami had ever tried sketching before she usually stopped halfway through the process. There were signs of erasing on some parts, but she had not given up. The result was impressive. And there were the drawings Marinette had wanted to show them.

 

“Oooooh…”

 

“Alya, you’re drooling”

 

“Still, oooooh…”

 

There was something about this blend of organic and electronic that fascinated Alya, and Kagami could very well see why. They may not have been scientifically accurate at all, but these redesigns were quite impressive, impressive enough for anyone to overlook that. These prototypes looked bulkier too, not yet the iconic skin-tight suits Ladybug and Chat Noir wore, but it only reinforced the coolness factor of it. Marinette didn’t look like she was done impressing them, and when she turned the page, there was a new drawing.

 

“I don’t remember her name, but since that new superhero showed up, I felt like I had to draw her too!”

 

Kagami could have missed the sudden dullness in Alya’s eyes at that if she had blinked at the wrong moment. The girl with the glasses almost looked bitter for a split second. Rena Rouge had been drawn in the same fashion as the two others, her suit all biomechanics and awesomeness. The details were quite precise and it was quite odd for Marinette to know exactly what the super heroine looked like without quite knowing her name. Kagami was about to ask Marinette where she had gotten the idea from, when Nino called loudly from the kitchen in a sing-song voice.

 

“Children, lunch’s ready!”

 

Kagami decided she was too hungry and that the question would have to wait for later. The three girls went downstairs and were greeted with the sight of Nino still wearing his apron, a small stain on the tip of his nose, a fist on his hip, the other hand holding a steaming dish. He was trying too hard, Kagami thought, but she couldn’t help her lips from turning upwards. Alya giggled and the boy grinned widely. He couldn’t hold the pose for too long and his arm started twitching. The dish was quite heavy, and Mme Cheng relieved him of its weight by putting it on the table. They all sat around the table as Marinette’s mother served everyone quite generously.

 

“Bon appétit!”

 

Nino’s curry was delicious, there were no other words to describe it. It was nourishing yet it didn’t feel too heavy, forkful after forkful, there was always something new to discover, the faint flavour of sesame, the way the red peppers and the green onions combined to perfection. The tofu dices didn’t taste too bland, the coconut milk didn’t feel too out of place and complimented the white rice nicely. Mme Cheng had taught her student well, she looked at him with pride and Nino puffed out his chest playfully when his girlfriend reluctantly praised his cooking. Kagami ate calmly with an tranquil smile on her lips. She liked it here.

 

The conversation was lively, but the meal was over sooner than Marinette would have liked, and their afternoon classes would begin in about half an hour. She wished they could have stayed longer and play video games, anything but school, really. She started clearing the table. Nino and Alya starting piling up the plates white Kagami did the same with their glasses. She then asked if she could help with the dishes, but Mme Cheng wouldn’t allow it. Instead, she gave Kagami a lunchbox filled with the curry they just had, with a small cup of coffee and a fork.

 

“Kagami, could you please go downstairs and give this to Tom? He must be hungry by now,” Mme Cheng said. And in a very loud whisper, she added, “I wouldn’t really trust my daughter with it, the last time I asked her… Ouch, it was ugly. Her hair—”

 

“Mum, I can hear you!” Marinette yelled.

 

“I’ll do my best, Madame Cheng,” Kagami said very seriously. She stole a glance at Marinette and went downstairs. The bakery was no longer as busy as when they had first arrived. And there was Tom Dupain, cleaning his glass display cabinets patiently behind the counter, singing to himself. He immediately noticed Kagami coming in and gave her a warm welcome.

 

“Kagami, right? Marinette talks about you all the time! And you even brought me lunch! That’s perfect!” Tom’s voices overenthusiastic, it felt like a well-rehearsed role.

 

Kagami didn’t quite know how to react to any of that. Why were the Dupain-Cheng so nice to her? She didn’t trust her voice, and so she decided to simply nod and give the man his lunchbox. He took it gladly and all but inhaled the curry it in a matter of seconds. “I’ll take care of it,” he said when he saw Kagami glance at the empty box. “So… How’s the weather? Oh no that was bad…” An awkward silence settled in the bakery, and neither of them knew what to say. Tom gave Kagami a sheepish smile; he wasn’t so good at the whole small talk thing when he didn’t play the role of “Tom the baker”, he explained. It lightened up the mood immediately. 

 

It was almost weird, staying in the bakery with M. Dupain like that, nothing like what Kagami had expected. They exchanged a few words from time to time, anecdotes about the bakery, questions about bakery in Japan, bread-related puns, but nothing that felt forced or out of place. And sometimes, nothing but a pleasant silence. It was nice that way too, Kagami decided, and M. Dupain seemed to share her view. Marinette was lucky to have parents like him and Mme Cheng, she thought.

 

It had stopped raining outside when Kagami finally exited from the bakery with a bag of chouquettes for her to share with her friends. Marinette had picked up Kagami’s bag. Yes, Kagami decided as she followed Marinette down the street, it didn’t matter if they had maths in a few minutes, it almost didn’t matter that she’d have to bear with most of her classmates. Because Marinette and her parents wanted her to come back for lunch or dinner someday, and the thought of it made her feel incredibly light on her feet. She almost felt like singing. When Kagami would open her bag that evening, she would find a page from Marinette’s sketchbook, one that had caught her eye. Two fencers facing each other. It was perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Me revoilà! It’s nice to be back.
> 
> Things are a little better for me now, I’m still a little slow and I’m not sure my writing will be consistent in the next chapters but I’ll try my best.
> 
> Next chapter, explosions. Lots of them. Everywhere. Boom.
> 
> I’m pretty sure Nino has a playlist for every occasion, he has to. 
> 
> Naoki Urasawa is really that good, if you haven’t read _Monster_ or _Pluto_ yet, do yourself a favour and read them. And _Billy Bat_ is pretty good too. I think.
> 
> About the Ladybug redesigns, if you feel like drawing them, I had envisioned them as a mix of Tetsuo’s arm, Major Kusanagi’s Ghost in the opening scene of the very first animated movie (the live action one was hot rubbish) and Eva Unit 01 without her armour. Marinette's a nerd. 
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr [here](https://algernoninwonderland.tumblr.com), I post previews for the incoming chapters and I sometimes post writing tips about France. Submit your art for this fic if you feel like it or ask me stuff, who knows, I might answer! Maybe. Eh. Don’t sweat it.
> 
> English is still not my first language, sorry for the terrible mistakes everywhere…
> 
> À lundi! Et encore merci pour votre patience, vous tou.te.s !


	8. Duel 8 : About to E-X-P-L-O-D-E

It was the noise that woke Kagami up, a loud rumble, followed by flashes of light that even her shutters and curtain could not block. Kagami tossed and turned, trying to go back to sleep. Even though it had been a fencing-free day, she had left school exhausted, her conversation with Marinette hadn’t lasted for long and she had had a hard time not falling asleep while doing her homework, and not only because she found it boring. But she couldn’t sleep, no matter how hard she tried, the noise outside, the flashes of light, none of it would stop. Something was happening outside, something highly unusual. Itsuko Tsurugi was a heavy sleeper, but the same couldn’t be said about her daughter. 

 

Kagami drowsily got out of bed and fumbled for her binoculars. She tiptoed out of her room, and to the balcony to get a clearer view of whatever was going on outside. She struggled to open the French window and a gush of cool wind blew at her face. She should have put on something a little warmer than these pyjamas, she should have put something on her feet. She couldn’t button her top more than that. But it didn’t matter to Kagami. She gripped the railing firmly with one hand, using the other to hold her binoculars to her eyes. She started looking around until she found where it was all coming from. 

 

Although she couldn’t see much yet, the scene was too fascinating for her to go back to sleep, she didn’t care if she was barefoot in the cold. It wasn’t everyday you could see Ladybug and Chat Noir in action with your own eyes, especially when you had a schedule as tight as Kagami’s. Kagami noted the absence of Rena Rouge, but at this point she had stopped hoping to see her each time. Rena Rouge showed up every so often, but less and less lately. It seemed that Ladybug and Chat Noir could handle most akumas on their own. Kagami winced as Ladybug almost lost her footing. 

 

Saying that Marinette wasn’t having the best night of her life would have been an understatement. Most akumas were kind enough to show up during the day, and she could sleep peacefully at night. Patrols weren’t time consuming and most days, she could get a proper amount of sleep. But not tonight. Tonight, she was busy saving Paris and dodging fireworks, swinging from building to building with her yo-yo, sparks of yellow and green barely missing her. Chat Noir’s strategy — hitting the rocket with his staff so that they’d fly back to their sender— was more risky than it was successful. Maybe she should have brought Alya with them. 

 

The Pyrotechnician let out a small huff as one of her rockets flew past her. They were such irritating spoilsports. Why couldn’t they simply give her their miraculouses and let her burn her former supervisor to death? Kids these days…

 

Ladybug’s poor attempt at outspeeding the fireworks was short-lived, and she soon had to retreat while Chat Noir tried to use her strategy again, unsuccessfully. How could the Pyrotechnician set up her fireworks that quickly? In a a wave of her hand, they were all ready. How come she had so many of them? It a flick of her wrist, her lighter lit the fuses and a new barrage of rockets flew in their general direction, none of them quite hitting their intended targets, but enough to force the two heroes to fall back. Sometimes, Marinette wondered if Hawk Moth’s akuma were just plot-convenient characters in the story of her existence, with no other purpose than to make her daily life a living hell. 

 

Ladybug climbed up a building so that she could get an overview of the situation, Chat Noir followed and Kagami’s breath hitched. She took off her binoculars. There was her heroine, her silhouette standing out clearly like a shadow puppet, the firework’s aggressive flare only accentuating Ladybug’s outline as she cartwheeled away from a bursting rocket, using her yo-yo as a shield. This sight was worth feeling a little cold. Chat Noir extended his staff and tried to hit the Pyrotechnician. Even without the binoculars, Kagami could tell he had barely missed his target as his cat ears twitched.

 

“It’s over, Pyrotechnician, I have the high ground!” Chat Noir yelled, and even from a distance, Kagami could hear the slight laughter in his bravado. He seemed to be having quite a lot of fun for someone who had almost died more than a couple of times in the last few minutes.

 

It was far from over, really. Kagami had to lean against the railing to see what the Pyrotechnician was doing. The akumatized woman seemed to focus quite hard and an impressively large smoke bomb emerged from her gloved hand. The Pyrotechnician looked at the two heroes with a ferocious smile, and threw the the smoke bomb. A thick layer of purple mist started to fill the street, and even with his night-vision, Chat Noir couldn’t see a thing. The two heroes glanced at each other and Ladybug stayed still, ready to strike. 

 

Kagami couldn’t really call herself a good judge of character, but based on his body language, she could tell that Chat Noir was flirting with his partner, who didn’t look very interested. That was both brave and foolish of him to do something like that in such a situation. Kagami couldn’t hear what the two could possibly say to each other, but Chat Noir straightened up a little and his feet shifted to what looked suspiciously like an en garde position. 

 

Ladybug had started summoning her lucky charm when rockets were fired in gust from different corners of the smoke-filled street, simultaneously but poorly aimed. They couldn’t tell where the Pyrotechnician was hiding, but it seemed that it was also true the other way around. Paris fell silence, if not for the sounds of police sirens from a distance. And the faint rumbling noise that grew louder and louder.

 

There was a bright flash of light, and a shape sprang up from the mist. Kagami nearly dropped her binoculars. That was insane, completely insane. The Pyrotechnician had created two gigantic rockets and was using them as a jetpack. Her arms were laden with fireworks. Chat Noir started spinning his staff, providing cover for Ladybug who summoned her lucky charm — what looked suspiciously like a water bomb. Kagami couldn’t quite hear them, but Ladybug had whispered something to Chat and he nodded gravely. He stopped spinning his staff, spinning wasn’t that much of a good trick anyway, and extended it instead, knocking the Pyrotechnician in the shoulder. She crashed on the roof. It was enough for Ladybug to jump behind the akumatized victim and to shove the water balloon inside one of the rockets. Ladybug ripped the glove off the Pyrotechnician’s hand and threw it it too Chat Noir who turned it into shreds with his Cataclysm. 

 

It had been like a fencing match, short and intense, an efficient strategy that had paid off. Ladybug captured the akuma and a white, luminous butterfly flew to the sky. It was the first time Kagami had witnessed a de-akumatization, she couldn’t remember clearly what had happened when she was the one being akumatized. A wave of light swept through the streets, and all the damage caused by the fight disappeared as though it had never been there to begin with. Ladybug comforted the confused woman standing on a rooftop in the middle of the night, and left her in Chat Noir’s care. The two heroes parted ways.

 

Kagami let out a breath she didn’t remember holding in the first place, a sigh of relief. She shivered and yawned. She was too tired for anything right now, a little too cold too. She made sure to shut the French window carefully and tiptoed back to her room. She fell asleep almost instantly, her dream weird and disjointed, filled with pictures she didn’t quite understand, memories of Riposte. Somehow, she felt even more tired when she woke up six hours later, the uplifting scene from early this morning had completely vanished from her mind. And the first thing Kagami Tsurugi did that day was to sneeze. Her nose was stuffy and runny, her eyes slightly bleary, her throat a little hoarse. She had caught a cold and she should have seen it coming. Today was the last day of school before the autumn holidays, she had a suitcase to pack for Japan and she was supposed to have fencing classes in the evening only a few hours before they left. And now she was sneezing. Awesome.

 

Her tea tasted somewhat bland, so did her fruit salad. Her mother looked at her with concern in her eyes and gave her cold medicine. Later that day, Kagami would learn that it hadn’t worked all that well, in fact in hadn’t helped at all. She took a quick shower, washed her hair — she’d have to get a haircut soon, it had almost grown past her shoulders— and dried herself just as quickly. She couldn’t stop shivering. She decided to wear slightly warmer clothes this time. She hoped it would be enough. At least, there was no way it could make things worse, she thought. She’d have to buy herself a scarf and more jumpers.

 

She put two extra packets of paper handkerchief in her bag, and one extra layer of concealer under her eyes, applied one extra line of eye pencil, hoping that no one would notice that she was tired and a little sick. She wasn’t the only one with a cold, it seemed, and many other people were sneezing in the métro. Great, Kagami thought to herself, I so desperately needed more bacteria in my life. Why couldn’t they wear surgical masks like responsible people not wanted to spread the disease? She had brought her own, of course, and people looked at her as if she had grown a second head.

 

She removed the mask when she got near the school. She didn’t need to hear the sniggers of the other students. As often, she was one of the first to make it inside the classroom, and she immediately started reading Yasmin Reza’s ‘ _Art’_. She didn’t bother greeting most of her classmates as they arrived one by one, she only waved at Nino and Alya. The latter had been quieter these last few days, and she waved back weakly They didn’t need to hear her croaky voice. That day, like most days, Marinette was late. Unlike most days, she looked tired, her hair was slightly unkempt. Kagami stole a worried glance at her friend — just a friend, just a friend— and tried to focus on the geography curriculum.

 

Kagami tried her best to hold in her sneeze. And failed. In fact, she sneezed all morning long, and it it was Marinette’s turn to be worried for her friend. Kagami continued taking down notes even though she couldn’t quite focus. She hadn’t suspected her day could have gotten any worse but it did when the geography teacher, Mme Vidal gave the class a ridiculously time-consuming kind of homework for the holidays, a case study on coastal regions in France and their attractiveness. And it started pouring outside. Marinette almost fell asleep and Kagami had to prod at her softly in the arm to wake her up before French class.

 

Kagami tried to read the text before the class actually started but she couldn’t quite focus. Maupassant’s _Bel-Ami_ didn’t feel nearly as interesting as what she had hoped for, she had no empathy for Georges Duroy and his rise in social status was almost disgusting. It was certainly the point of the text, when she came to think of it, and it was exactly what Mme Berthes said right away. Unlike most of Kagami’s former teachers, she didn’t spend her time trying to play the role of an historian, explaining everything based on the life of Maupassant and of historical context of the late 19th century, she didn’t try to act like a sociologist or a psychologist. Maybe that was the reason why the young teacher was so unpopular among her colleagues, but Kagami found her brilliant.  

 

Mme Berthes stayed as close to the text as she could, and did not pretend to be an almighty source of authority. She made literature class highly enjoyable, lively, even, and Kagami almost forgot about her stuffy nose, her occasional sneezes and her departure early this Saturday morning. Kagami was completely absorbed in the lesson and didn’t want to miss a single word of what her teacher had to say, and although she didn’t write everything down, she’d remember almost all of it for years. It was Kagami’s sneeze that woke Marinette up again. Kagami hadn’t even noticed that she had fallen back asleep, and she gave Marinette an apologetic wince.

 

The lesson couldn’t last forever, and soon, too soon, the bell rung. Kagami was back under the weather and out of handkerchiefs. She almost felt like going back to bed and never leaving its warmth ever again. Marinette patted her back with a small, sad smile. They didn’t share any classes together that afternoon, and they wouldn’t see each other for the next two weeks. They’d miss each other. They finally walked out of the classroom and Marinette looked as though she had something to ask of Kagami.

 

“Is it alright if I hug you?” Marinette asked. “I know you’re not always confortable with that so…”

 

“Yes, yes it’s—” Kagami sneezed before she could finish her sentence. “Yes, please, do.”

 

Marinette closed the distance between the two of them and slowly hugged the other girl. Hesitantly, Kagami hugged her back, making sure not to allow her hands to go any lower than Marinette’s shoulders. They remained like this for a little while, and Kagami was almost sure she heard Marinette hum. Neither of them wanted to let go, but they knew they had to, and they did so reluctantly. Kagami felt cold. Of course, they’d still text each other, even if they were several hours away from one another, but now that they had spent almost two months in each other’s daily company, sharing the same classroom most of the time, sometimes having lunch and more recently fencing lessons together, it wouldn’t feel the same as during the summer when they were barely getting to know each other. Not that they knew each other a lot better now, but still.

 

They parted ways, Marinette going home before her extra English class with Adrien and a few others while Kagami stayed at school to have lunch before her regular English lesson with the rest of her class. Nino and Alya were nowhere to be found. Alya sometimes tried to act in a completely over-the-top manner, but it felt like a caricature of herself. Sometimes, she was quieter than what Kagami had grown used to, she even kept in the background. Adrien was nowhere to be found, and she usually didn’t share lunch with other friends of hers. 

 

Kagami had lunch on her own that day, purposefully staying away from the other students. The food in her lunchbox was dull, almost tasteless, even though her mother had made it slightly spicier. Kagami blamed her cold for that. Her nose was still stuffy, she still sneezed and now she missed Marinette. What a great day. Marjane came to keep her company but she failed to lighten up the mood. She tried to talk about literature, but the conversation didn’t last for more than a few awkward minutes. They went to the school library to work, and the librarian asked Kagami to leave. As if she could choose to sneeze noiselessly. When she sat down next to a quiet Alya in the English classroom, she was in a foul mood.

 

English class was uneventful to say the least, Alya and Kagami didn’t chat at all and as always, M. Rafroidit droned on his own. Most students, if not all of them, didn’t speak English at all during class, which was better for Kagami. She wouldn’t have to listen to her classmates’ terrible accent and grammar which meant she wouldn’t roll her eyes all the time, only as much as usual. Also she wouldn’t have to make a fool of herself in front of her classmates because of her pronunciation. It was one of the many things she’d have to work on.

 

Adrien had told Kagami that his English class was only about twenty students, all of which were given the opportunity to talk and improve their English. M. Rafroidit did all the talking and gave them duplicated notes. It felt as though he was teaching ancient Greek, but not a living language spoken by living people. Nino and Alya wished Kagami a good holiday in Japan before she left for her fencing lessons, and it gave her the energy to make it to the gymnasium where M. D’Argencourt was waiting for her. 

 

Sneezing while wearing her fencing mask was completely new for Kagami, and she wished she had never experienced that, and Adrien had looked as if he was trying his best not to crack a pun at her when it happened. Both her friend and the fencing instructor looked concerned about her health, but she stayed until the end of the lesson anyway. She’d spend two weeks away from her best teacher yet, and away from one of her friends and best opponents.  She didn’t want to make this last lesson shorter because of her cold. 

 

She usually trained with Adrien, but this time she worked with some other students after M. D’Argencourt asked her to. It wasn’t as bad as she had expected it to be, it allowed her to work a little more on her footwork. Her opponents didn’t share her view on the matter. In fact they felt like practice dummies more than actual people. She didn’t have the patience to explain them what they had done wrong and how they could improve their fencing, and she remained mostly silent. Still, two notable things happened during the fencing lesson. The first one, Kagami finally mastered the moulinet when practicing with her fencing instructor. The second one…

 

“Your attention, everyone!” M. D’Argencourt all but shouted. “As you may already know, the Junior Fencing Competiti… Bless you, Kagami. As I was saying, the Junior Fencing Competition of Paris will take place this November. Our Academy has stayed away from such events for quite a long time, and I think it is time for that era to end! And so, we shall join this competition! Lesson dismissed! ”

 

The gymnasium was filled with the excited chatter of the fencing students as they walked to the changing rooms. Adrien and Kagami shook hands, wishing each other a happy autumn holidays. Kagami stayed in the gymnasium to have a small chat with her fencing instructor. Also, she didn’t want to share the changing room with the other girls, but M. D’Argencourt didn’t need to know that. And so, they talked for a little while, about her training regimen and what she should work on while in Japan. Not that she’d follow all of his tips, not completely at least, she’d also ask her mother for some more advice. Finally, she bade her fencing instructor goodbye and had a quick and rather unenjoyable shower.

 

Kagami came out of lycée Carnot, not using her usual exit door. She felt exhausted and lonely and still sick, and none of that could be helped. She looked for her earphones but couldn’t find them where she usually left them. There was no use staying there, she had so many things to do, and cold medicine waiting for her at home. She searched her pockets and   found her earphones at last. She started walking to the métro station right away, but almost stopped in the middle of the street. Had someone just called her name? She must have misheard, at least that was what Kagami told herself, and so she didn’t bother looking around to see who could have possibly yelled what sounded like her name.

 

Kagami’s music — Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Amore— was playing too loud for her to hear the sound of  footsteps getting closer until the last moment. “Hey, Kagami, could you please slow down a little?” a voice asked loudly and Kagami turned around at last. A very out-of-breath Marinette stopped right in front of Kagami with what looked like a small package tucked under her arm. Why was she here? Had she run all the way from her house to here? She’d ask these questions later, Kagami thought,  for now seeing Marinette made her incredibly happy.

 

“I’m so glad I finally found you!” Marinette said between huffed breaths. “I know it’s not much but you had me worried today… Please, take it!” And with that, she all but shoved the package into Kagami’s hands. 

 

On closer inspection, it wasn’t a small package at all, but a red woollen scarf. It felt incredibly soft and smooth to the touch, except for an odd seam in the shape of an “M”. Kagami wound it around her neck slowly, afraid to damage it. She felt much better already. Warmth bloomed in her chest and—

 

“You’ve knitted it yourself, haven’t you?” Kagami smiled at Marinette fondly. “I wish… I wish I knew how to thank you for all you’ve done for me…”

 

“Just wear it, alright? Seeing you sick worried me a lot, I hate seeing you like that and… But you have a métro to take and tonight you’re going back to Japan and I just wanted to see you one last time because I’m going to miss you and I should probably stop talking now I think,” Marinette rambled.

 

Kagami did something incredibly brave and foolish, something that made her heart pound in her chest as never before. She hugged Marinette, slowly, pouring all her gratitude in the gesture. She was going to miss her plane if they kept on hugging like that, but she didn’t want to let go, and neither did Marinette, it seemed, but they both knew they had to. Kagami took a step back and brushed a hand through her hair in an attempt to look very smooth and not red-faced at all. Kagami’s phone rung as if on cue, and she had to pick it up.

 

“ _Mum?”_

 

_“Turn your head to the right! Hello!”_

 

There was the sound of a car window rolling down and here was Itsuko Tsurugi, waving at her daughter from a taxi, mere centimetres away from her daughter. Kagami jumped and dropped her phone. Luckily, Marinette caught it before it could fall on the ground and Kagami’s mother clapped as though it had been a show. Marinette was quite an acrobat, after all, but still…

 

“You must be Marinette!” she beamed. “Kagami told me so much about you, it’s nice to finally meet you! You should come and visit us someday!”

 

“I-it’s nice to meet you too, Mme Tsurugi,” Marinette said, not quite knowing what she could add to that. She was quite impressed by the woman.

 

“Kagami dear, get in the taxi, we’ve still got much to do.”

 

Kagami nodded dumbly, looked at Marinette one last time and opened the taxi’s door, getting inside the vehicle. The taxi drove away as soon as she closed the door.  Kagami could feel her mother grinning at her without even having to look at her. She shifted in her seat nervously, bracing herself for whatever question her mother could throw at her. She couldn’t have guessed what her mother had in mind.

 

“ _You looked really happy when you were talking to her,_ ” Itsuko Tsurugi noted with a satisfied smile on her face. “ _This Marinette looks like a nice person._ ”

 

“ _Yes, she really is_ ,” Kagami said, fiddling with her scarf… “ _Mum? What is it?_ ”

 

“ _You’d like her to be more than a friend_ ,” Itsuko said, still grinning. “ _I’ll be happy not only to have her over for lunch but also for dinner, you know that?_ ”

 

 _“You would?_ ”

 

Itsuko Tsurugi nodded, satisfied, and Kagami had a small smile on her lips for the rest of the ride.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there!
> 
> Next chapter, Tokyo, haircuts and merchandise.
> 
> Prequel references, lots of them, because that fight wasn’t silly enough!
> 
> The idea of Marinette knitting a red scarf for Kagami was one of my firsts for this fic! 
> 
> [Ryuichi Sakamoto’s Amore ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AGZuqB1rJk). I really like his work as an actor in _Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence_ and his work as a composer in general 
> 
> Follow me on Tumblr [here](https://algernoninwonderland.tumblr.com), I post previews for the incoming chapters there (sometimes) and I sometimes post writing tips about France and other things. Submit your art for this fic if you feel like it or ask me stuff, who knows, I could answer if I’m not too lazy.
> 
> Still a baguette, the bad English is not intended… 
> 
> À jeudi!


	9. Duel 9 : Unfamiliar Ceiling

Itsuko Tsurugi decided that her daughter needed to rest more, and although Kagami had tried to sleep for most of the twelve hours of the flight, she still looked quite exhausted when the plane finally landed in Haneda. Itsuko was febrile, and she hoped it didn’t show too much. Would everything be alright in their Parisian flat? And more importantly, would her husband come to pick them up at the airport? Of course not, she told herself bitterly, he’d have someone else do it for him. And Itsuko Tsurugi was right. Kagami received a short text from her father, a very short “ _Can’t come. Sent someone to pick you up around 6:45PM._ ”  In twenty minutes. Hadn’t Kagami been so tired, she would have been fuming. She was slightly irritated instead, which was no better. It was the way Father worked, she should have grown used to it.

 

She tried to cool down and decided to message Marinette to tell her that she was back in Tokyo and that her flight had gone well enough. The girl answered her right away. Kagami was too tired to smile at this answer. She’d have to send a few messages to her other French friends, but that would have to wait. For now she just sent a few texts to her friends in Japan to tell them that she was back. She’d have to ask Taneda if he could cut her hair if he found the time for tha. Maybe they could hang out with Aiko if she managed to find the time for that between her homework, her fencing training and the rest. Two weeks were more than enough for all of that, she thought. At last, there was the car, big enough to fit all of their luggage. Still, Itsuko Tsurugi didn’t relax, and her daughter looked equally apprehensive.

 

The drive from the airport to Tokyo was silent, rather tense, the driver didn’t quite know what to say and neither Kagami nor her mother were in the mood for conversation. The only thing Kagami wanted was to go back to sleep, and her mother had to wake her up when the car stopped at last, a few hundred metres away from the Tsurugi flat. Kagami wound up her scarf tightly around her neck as they walked down the street and somehow, it helped. It only struck her now that Tokyo was indeed very clean, way cleaner than Paris. She had always assumed this was normal until now. She had missed this. Kagami yawned and stretched. Her suitcase felt too heavy. She needed sleep. 

 

Of course, the flat was completely dark when they arrived, if not for the late evening light that filtered through the windowpanes. Not that it really surprised either of them. Of course, there was nobody there, least of all Teppei Tsurugi. Itsuko unlocked the door. The two women stepped inside, took off their shoes, looked at each other for a second and made their way inside the flat. The floors seemed rather clean, but a thin layer of dust covered the bookshelves. Some things never changed, Kagami guessed, Father only came home to sleep and then went back to work, he had never really lived there to begin with. She pushed her bedroom door open.

 

Nothing had moved in the past two months, from that flashy family ring Kagami had forgotten on purpose so that she wouldn’t have to wear it all the time in France to a boxful of books she had asked Father to give away. It was qs if the man hadn’t come in her room once. Of course, he hadn’t watered her eucalyptus, and the small shrub looked like it had died a few weeks ago, completely dry. She shouldn’t have expected to see it alive, but Kagami was disappointed. She decided she wouldn’t buy a new one, there was no use to it. At least, mum had asked the neighbour to take care of their plants in Paris, the same couldn’t be said about here. The room felt both familiar and something completely foreign to her. It was the room of a girl who had gone missing.

 

They had to order food that night. The fridge was almost empty, Teppei probably ate outside all the time and never cooked for himself. Kagami and her mother looked equally worn out and unhappy although they avoided the subject completely. They still loved Tokyo, but this flat didn’t feel like theirs, only a soulless copy of it. They slept all Sunday long so that they would not be too jet lagged, and when Kagami woke up in the evening that day, her Father was there, his face grave and unreadable if not for a hint of disappointment in his eyes. Kagami and her mother didn’t speak much, but they came to a common understanding: they’d better go out as much as possible. Staying here would be too uneasy.

 

Every single day, Kagami would wake up early, work out and find an excuse not to stay at home. She did most of her homework in public libraries, which took her only a few hours the first two days, but she pretended she had more and stayed there to read. Anywhere but home would do, really. She practised her fencing even more than she usually did, spending even more time than before in the salle. She followed M. D’Argencourt’s advice, at least partly. That competition was drawing near, and she wouldn’t allow herself to lose, or finish second for that matter. In fact, she intensified her training regimen, making sure that it would take place in the evening so that she’d be too tired to do anything afterwards; she’d go back home, have dinner, take a bath and sleep.

 

It was a rather exhausting routine, and training with her mother made it even more complicated than before. Itsuko knew her daughter too well to fall for her feints. She was a former olympic champion, after all, and to her, Kagami’s appels were a little too predictable, she thought, her daughter stamping her foot didn’t distract her in the slightest. And if didn’t work on her, it wasn’t good enough. Itsuko would shape her daughter into the best duellist in the family, better than her father, better than herself, even. It wasn’t because Kagami was fifteen that her mother expected any less of her than the very best. Did that make her a bad mother? Was she doing the right thing? Her daughter didn’t say a thing, even when she was pushed to her limits.

 

 

Although fencing was something she genuinely enjoyed, Kagami’s life felt somehow emptier now than it had in the last few years, and not only because a part of it was in France; the Ladyblog had become less and less active. Even while in Paris, it had been where Kagami used to get her daily fix of Ladybug. There used to be new posts, new footage uploaded by Alya every days. The same couldn’t be said anymore. Her contributors helped, of course, but it wasn’t the same, it lacked that unmistakable flair. The forum seemed less interesting than before, and Kagami muted many Ladybug-related subscriptions of hers. Marinette had complained that Alya took quite some time to answer her when she answered at all, and the girl with the glasses hadn’t answered Kagami’s own “I’m back in Japan” text. Kagami didn’t know what to think of it.

 

Kagami still had a lot of spare time, despite the homework and her practice; she had never been so glad to have friends She hadn’t expected Marjane to text her but she did, with quite a few mythology puns. Nino texted her too, although not that often, and even more occasionally Adrien’s name showed up in her messages. And a name she had rather not see, too. Kagami didn’t know how, but Gustave had managed to get her number. She didn’t bother answering him, hoping that he’d get the hint and just stop texting her. And of course, he didn’t. In the end, Kagami decided to block the boy completely, and regretted she hadn’t done that before. 

 

Of course, Kagami tried to text Marinette as often as she could, they still chatted about everything they could think of, and Marinette sent many sketches and pictures, of her work and of herself Kagami tried to do the same, and it was quite nice in itself, not different from what they had done all summer long. Still, Kagami had thought she had grown used to missing people, but it had rarely quite felt like that. It was a nagging feeling, not that she couldn’t focus on other things, but if she let her mind wander too far… And it was almost everywhere, especially when she played video games Marinette had suggested they played — the Minish Cap was giving her a harder time than planned. She hated that feeling.

 

Kagami was glad Aiko and Taneda were there, and she had a lot of catching up to do. She had tried to keep up with the two of them, but she felt like she had been missing out a lot. Messages weren’t everything, it seemed When had Taneda grown up so much? Not that he was that tall, he’d still be a little shorter than Kagami even though he was older than her, but still. Aiko used to be the loud one in their group of friends, but she had finally learned how to lower her voice when needed. Small, but noticeable changes she had never seen coming. Kagami wondered if her friends thought she had changed, but if she had, they told her nothing of it. 

 

Together, the three friends tried to make the most of the time they had, and Aiko had planned many things. They tried something new everyday, from going to the cinema to strolling around Shibuya and going window-shopping there, or simply staying at one of the two friends’s places — Kagami’s flat was a big no, and she had told them so immediately. Teppei Tsurugi was an unpredictable man after all. 

 

 They almost fell back to their former routine when Kagami lived in Japan, and it felt reassuring, somehow. But it wasn’t exactly the same.  The small alterations felt welcome, even. The next ten days passed in a blur of pictures, sounds, flavours sensations Kagami had grown used to, the familiar sight of the city bathed in the morning light, the noise of the Ladybug-themed pachinko when Kagami scored a high score, Aiko’s purposefully terrible singing voice, the kikigori they shared in Ikebukuro, sore muscles after training session. Kagami was seldom bored, and for the most part, she was happy about the way her days went, if not for Father being his usual aloof, unsupportive self. 

 

She had a lot to write in her Tokyo journal. She missed Marinette, but it didn’t keep her from enjoying what she had here in Tokyo. Soon enough, she would be back in Paris and she didn’t want to regret her holiday.

 

It was the ninth day when Kagami finally asked Taneda to cut her hair like he had done in the past, and he reluctantly agreed. She didn’t want to bother her mother with it, nor pay for a hairdresser. And Taneda worked wonders with his scissors in his hand, his living room was better than any salon, even if the cheesy drama playing in the background wasn’t her thing. Taneda hadn’t lost his edge, and though Kagami only wanted him to shorten the length of her hair just like he had done the year before, she knew that she could have asked for something more complex. After a full hour of a very minute work, Taneda was satisfied with what he had done, and Kagami was too. He was good. 

 

Taneda’s mother had rather he became a businessman like his uncle, but he had plans of his own, he told Kagami that day, if he didn’t make it to university. And he had made it very clear by experimenting on his own hair first. During her years in Tokyo, Kagami had seen Taneda dye his hair quite often. He tried to hide his enthusiasm when he spoke about it, but Kagami saw right through it. Why couldn’t he allow himself to speak up more openly about the things he liked? It wasn’t something to be ashamed of, was it? Not that Kagami was very open about these sorts things either, she reflected. 

 

“ _Hey, what do you want to to when you’re out of lycée?_ ”

 

 Kagami didn’t know what she possibly answer to that. She had never considered her near future. She would become one of the best fencers of her generation, of course, but the thought of being this and this only dissatisfied her. She answered Taneda’s question with an evasive “ _How about you ask me the same question some other day?_ ” and that was it. Aiko brushed her hand through Kagami’s hair appraisingly that day, Itsuko noted the change and was happy about it — had Kagami asked Taneda for any other type of haircut, she feared that her mother might not have been so supportive —while Father, when he showed up for dinner, didn’t seem to notice any change. Sometimes, she wondered why her parents were married at all.

 

Kagami took more than a dozen pictures that evening before she found one she believed to be good enough to be sent to Marinette. It was the middle of the day in France when Kagami went to bed and usually, Marinette would answer her within an hour, usually a few minutes, but this time she didn’t.. When Kagami woke up the next morning, she almost found herself smiling at the message Marinette had sent her while she was asleep. It was a heartwarming compliment, and it made her heart skip a few beats… But something was off, as though it had been hastily typed. It was odd, Kagami thought, Marinette hadn’t said she would be busy. Marinette was more of a secretive girl than Kagami had remembered her to be. Kagami got up and didn’t bother checking the Ladyblog that morning. There was nothing new on the site. Besides, she had other plans for the day, and for that, she would need to ask her mother.

 

Itsuko trained her daughter until noon, and at last, she was satisfied with Kagami’s sabre technique. She seemed to have stopped trying to imitate her mother’s compound attacks, and her feints were getting more and more convincing. Itsuko hugged Kagami before they parted ways. It was a happy Kagami who joined Aiko for lunch, not minding the cold weather —she hadn’t forgotten the scarf, in fact she wore it as often as she could. The city would be even more crowded than it usually was, but Aiko was used to it and so was Kagami.

 

They were in the middle of Shibuya Crossing chatting about their plans for when Kagami would come back when Aiko’s phone chimed and the girl could barely keep herself from squealing when she checked it. She all but shoved the phone in Kagami’s face. And Kagami could see where Aiko’s excitement was coming from. Maybe she should have checked the Ladyblog after all. The Japanese fan-translation of the website had just uploaded something new, a public statement from Paris’s superheroes. These rarely happened, and Kagami had a hard trime trying not to look excited about it too. Aiko was even worst than her when it came to Ladybug, it seemed, and it didn’t surprise her.

 

And so, the two friends went to Aiko’s small and cramped flat after a short trip to the konbini. They may have been hungry, but there was something more important in their minds. And watching that video on a small phone screen would be a crime. Aiko’s laptop would do the job properly, the girl ran to her room to bring it to the kitchen where Kagami was waiting for her. They’d cook later, they decided. Why couldn’t the page load any faster? The wait felt almost unbearable to them. They needed to know, they had to. Finally, the video loaded without stuttering, Aiko clenched her fists and Kagami held her breath. 

 

“Citizens of Paris,” Chat Noir spoke. He looked worn out, and so did Ladybug. “As you all know, a young man was almost harmed during yesterday’s akuma attack. In spite of our warnings, he… He found himself in the way of our fight and although we managed to rescue him, he was nearly crushed by a projectile fired by the akumatized victim. This kind of incident has happened in the past, and it’s not the first time someone who calls themselves an overzealous fan of us does this. However, we’d like it not happen anymore. Paris, we are here to protect you, but acting irresponsibly just to watch us in action is dangerous and unhelpful.

 

“Our mission is to protect you, to help you, but we cannot always keep you safe if you purposefully throw yourself in harm’s way. This is not a silly cartoon or a fun show for you to watch, these confrontations are dangerous and violent . We appreciate all the support you give us, Paris, but you are not background characters in a story of heroes, you are not expendable and we don’t want to be considered as gods of some sorts. If you don’t act with safety in your minds, you only make things harder for us.”

 

Kagami kept her eyes on the screen, biting the inside of her cheek as Chat Noir stepped back from the line of journalists. It was going to be Ladybug’s turn to speak at any moment now, and next to Kagami, Aiko bounced in her chair. Of course, it felt like a show to her, she wasn’t there, she didn’t live there. Of course, a leather clad boy wearing cat ears and a domino mask would feel like a silly character in a kid’s cartoon. To many, it wouldn’t feel real. At least I’m better than that, Kagami thought. Ladybug had stepped forward and Kagami felt her breath hitch in her throat. In her eyes, an expression Kagami had never seen in hours of footage and personal sighting. 

 

There was a hint of disappointment and anger in these blue eyes.

 

“I wish to come back to what my partner said,” Ladybug said and her voice all but quivered, “about our status as new idols of some sorts. This is not what we are. This is not what we want to be. And I think you are completely wrong if you think that idolising us helps at all. By doing that, you make me feel like a movie star of some sorts and that’s a very grave mistake. Many of you love our iconic costumes, you love how cool we look in action… But is that just it? Is that all you think we’re here for? It feels nice to have this support, it’s nice to know that you like these symbols and I appreciate it, but does it help us make Paris akuma and crime-free? 

 

“I don’t think buying merchandise with our names smashed on it helps in the slightest, and I don’t want to be associated with that at all. We personally don’t make any profit out of it and we don’t want to make any profit at all. A few weeks ago, I was made aware of how most of this merchandise was made and where it was made. I don’t support it at all, and knowing the working conditions of the people who certainly made all these fancy toys and action figures… It makes me feel sick. 

 

“As heroes, we are not looking for any kind of profit in terms of money, but whatever business trying to sell you these is. I think buying this kind of merchandise is a mistake, and it shows something even more disturbing. I think you completely missed what we stand for. We are not just animal-themed superheroes created to sell toys, this is not what we’ve chosen to be. There are better ways to spend your money, ways that would actually help us and show appreciation for us as more than suits. We don’t need Ladybug and Chat Noir idolators, and romanticising us, being obsessed with us that way is far from healthy.”

 

It felt like someone had knocked the air out of Kagami’s lungs and poured icy water on her skin. Something was shaking within her, and Ladybug’s voice had started stirring it. Had she been wrong this whole time? Had it been wrong of her to create that shrine and collect all these items? Did that make her a disgusting person? Had she missed the point completely? She hadn’t helped Ladybug at all by doing any of that, all she had done was make some companies a little richer Her stomach churned. She felt sick.

 

She had hoped it would serve as a way to thank Ladybug but all she had done was satisfy herself and put herself in danger instead. Kagami’s intentions hadn’t mattered in the slightest, all she had done was collect things devoid of the meaning she hoped they held. She felt like she had been lied to, she had been cheated and in a way she caused more harm than good. She wasn’t used to being wrong like that. Aiko paused the video and looked at her friend with concern.

 

“ _You wanna go outside for a little while?_ ”

 

“ _Ladybug is not done speaking yet_ ,” Kagami answered weakly, as if to convince herself. “ _Let’s try hearing all she has to say, right?_ ”

 

Aiko hesitantly unfroze the video.

 

“But in saying that, I am being too harsh on the many of you who believed it would help,” Ladybug said and her eyes softened. “Please, try not to be too hard on yourselves. You couldn’t have known, and you are not the ones who disappoint me. You were not the ones who chose to sell things _en masse,_ and you were tricked into believing that it would support us actively. You deserved better, and there are ways for you to help us in our fight against Hawk Moth, there are ways for you to help us make our duty easier, there are ways for you to help us make the world a better place. This is what we stand for.”

 

“We try to be healers as much as we are fighters,” Chat Noir added with a small grin, “of course we fight evil and that’s pretty pawesome in itself, but that’s not just it. And this is where you can play a role.”

 

“First and foremost, try to keep away from any akuma-related situation, and by that I mean that onlookers may be in danger,” Ladybug spoke clearly. “Don’t try to be a hero. If the police and the army failed to contain akumas, I  don’t think you stand a single chance against one of them. Don’t be a vigilante, chances are you’ll only hurt yourself and possibly others too. I’m sure you mean well, but you can mean for the best and end up creating a disaster. 

 

“Secondly, trying to track us or to reveal our identities is also risky, it may be used by malevolent people, possibly Hawk Moth himself. Be sure that you are in a safe place when you share this kind of information. Nothing good will come out of it, we’ll only become easier targets for villains. And the consequences for our families… You can well imagine how disastrous they could be. Please, be careful about it, and think about the consequences your actions could have. Is taking the risk worth it? What is it that you really want out of it? Ask yourself this simple question.”

 

At this point, Kagami went in the kitchen and poured herself a cool glass of water. In the meantime, she sent Taneda and her mother a few texts; she’d be back in France in two days and there were still things to do. Kagami could still hear the sound from a distance, Aiko had been mindful of that, but a good part of what Ladybug said was lost to her.

 

“Thirdly and maybe more importantly, we now know that Hawk Moth uses negative emotions as a fuel for his powers, this helps him create his sbires,” Ladybug said. “And there’s only one way to prevent it from happening, and it is through understanding, caring, patience and empathy. We can’t ask you to love each other, although it would certainly help, but at least have some respect for each other. Many akumas were born of injustice and prejudice, it could have been avoided easily. Not only will it prevent the creation of new akumas, but I think it will feel better for everyone.

 

“We all have negative emotions from time to time, even the two of us and I think we should be able to talk about it. Even Chat Noir and I can be angry, and sometimes having such feelings is far from abnorma. But it’s sometimes we can talk about and I think it is what would be for the best. But we know it isn’t always that easy. Sometimes, a hierarchy gets in the way of equal treatment. I don’t know if this is the right place to discuss it but I’ll simply ask you this:  managers, bosses, treat your employees with dignity, teachers, treat your students with respect, they deserve it, parents, be kind and patient with your children. Hawk Moth has used and will use unfair situations and weaponise them. I wish I didn’t have to say that, it seems so obvious to me, but it seems that it isn’t and–”

 

The speakers on Aiko’s computer weren’t the best, but the girl and her friend were sure they had heard a faint beep —Ladybug’s earrings?— and the speech was cut short. The superheroes gave the journalists their apologies, and Kagami felt like the words were also meant for the viewers, and Chat Noir and Ladybug parted ways. The video stopped and the room was silent for a while, neither Kagami nor Aiko dared their mouths for a little while. After an endless minute, Aiko cleared her throat.

 

“ _Do you know where I could sell all that merchandise?_ ” Aiko asked. “ _I’m not sure I feel confortable having these figures in my room_.”

 

“ _I don’t know, but I’ll ask myself the same question when I’m back in Paris_ ,” Kagami said _._ “ _There’s no way I’m keeping that shrine_.”

 

 

On a cold November morning, a very jet-lagged Kagami Tsurugi walked to her room with one idea in her mind, getting rid of that shrine and all of her Ladybug merchandise. She hadn’t unpacked her suitcase yet, but she had more important things to do than that. 

 

She was glad to be back in Paris. Father had been awful the last day, there had been a lot of yelling, and she was happy to be away from him for a while. Her goodbyes with Aiko and Taneda hadn’t been easy, but she wasn’t sad to be back. More than that, she was happy to find that their next door neighbour had taken their responsibilities seriously. Jérémy Belpois and Aelita Stones had struck her as an odd couple, but they had taken care of the Tsurugi’s plants in their absence, Itsuko even found a freshly baked cake on the kitchen table with a note from the young couple. Itsuko smiled to herself. She was glad to be back home.

 

Kagami gathered everything Ladybug-related she owned — safe for her observation journal, of course, she’d keep it although she wouldn’t try adding new content to it— and put the pile of things in a cardboard box. It took her a little while to clean everything up, but at last she was satisfied with her work. Kagami wrapped her red scarf around her neck. She’d give the box to a charity, she decided, that’s what Marjane had suggested and it was quite a good idea. Kagami felt lighter, a little happier too, as if a weight had been lifted from her. The next weeks would be great, she decided. On Monday, she’d see Marinette and her friends again… She could hardly wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so… I'm back. Yay…
> 
> Things have been complicated and not very easy but I'm in a better place now. I haven't given up on this just yet, and if you are patient enough, I think I might be able to finish this fic (which is clearly AU with the way season 2 has developed). I'm trying to work on other things too, and the next update may not come until I'm satisfied with my work, but it will come before the end of the year if nothing terribly wrong happens to me, or if I don't spend too much time gushing over Deltarune. 
> 
> I'll start posting other things (not always related to this fic) on my tumblr [here](https://algernoninwonderland.tumblr.com)so visit it if you feel like it!
> 
> The existence of Miraculous merch in-universe is something that has always ticked me off, and I'm poor if that was heavy-handed but I wanted to address it. 
> 
> Also, yes, that's a Code Lyoko reference.
> 
> I'll see you in the next chapter,
> 
> À bientôt, et merci encore pour tout, vous êtes les meilleur.e.s !


	10. Duel 10: When the Light is Running Low

She wouldn’t be late today, she wouldn’t be late today, she wouldn’t be late today. But her bed was so warm, so confortable and she still felt a little tired; staying there would be alright, wouldn’t it? Marinette stirred and snuggled up against her blanket. Her alarm clock would start ringing in a few minutes but she couldn’t help feeling sleepy. Being herself was tiring. She slowly opened her eyes and closed them again and she hid her head under a pillow so that she wouldn’t be forced to hear the metallic sound that was meant to wake her up. 

 

Besides, days were getting shorter and shorter, the night sky lingered longer every morning, so it was completely natural for her to want to go back to sleep again, and so, Marinette didn’t wake up when the alarm clock rung. Five more minutes could have easily turned into a good half hour, and a few years ago, it would have been the case. Not anymore. A minuscule silhouette snuck up under the pillow and heaved a small sigh. How Tikki hated doing that… But it couldn’t be helped, she guessed. And she had to admit it, she found Marinette’s reaction to be quite funny every time she did that. Tikki got closer to her young Ladybug’s ear and opened her mouth. Her small, razor-sharp teeth glinted in the dark and—

 

“OUCH!” 

 

Marinette jumped out of bed, completely awake now, cupping her ear in her hand, small tears in her eyes. Sometimes, she wished she hadn’t asked Tikki to take care of waking her up, even though that had always proven to be tremendously efficient. Marinette patted her kwami’s head menacingly and Tikki whispered a small “sorry“ though her eyes said otherwise. Marinette went to the bathroom and showered quickly. She got dressed. She had a quick breakfast, kissed her mum goodbye and took an umbrella —the one Adrien and given her— before she walk out the door. She waved at her father who waved back at her from inside the bakery.

 

And she did make it in time. The November weather was far from enjoyable, but she didn’t mind waiting for Alya in front of the school and she wasn’t the only one waiting for their friends. Many students were chatting around lycée Carnot, which was a good sign. She didn’t have to wait too long for her friend to arrive and she beamed when she saw Alya walking towards her.

 

“Hey! how’s it going?”

 

“… Hey, girl, how’s it going?…”

 

 

There was something off with her friend, Marinette decided as the two of them walked to the classroom, but she didn’t speak the thought out loud. She couldn’t quite pinpoint when it had started, maybe a few weeks before the holiday, maybe even before, in the aftermath of the Sapotis situation. It hadn’t gotten better. Alya looked tired, as if she wasn’t quite there. And also… Thinner? Something was decidedly wrong, and Marinette couldn’t help but want to ask her questions.

 

Alya wasn’t in a very talkative mood today, not that she had been particularly chatty these last few days. She had cancelled most of their plans in the last few weeks, and even now, she purposefully didn’t look at Marinette when she could help it. In fact, she seemed to look at nothing at all most of the time. Alya’s eyes were dull. It worried Marinette.

 

They stopped in front of the classroom’s door and Marinette spied what was going on inside from the corner of her eye. All the students there were having lively discussions, all but Kagami who was sitting, cross-legged, the red scarf Marinette had knitted for her wound around her neck, a book in her hand. Had she always been so gorgeous? Marinette had known Kagami to be pretty, but never this beautiful. She stood out in the middle of her classmates, and Marinette almost forgot they were there at all. She dismissed it, dismissed all of it, came back to her senses quickly and berated herself; she had eyes for Adrien and Adrien only, even if they didn’t see each other very often. She turned to Alya, and the two friends stepped inside the classroom.

 

Kagami finally closed her book and greeted Marinette and Alya from a distance with an almost perfectly composed face, the one she used in class, only betrayed by the hint of a blush on her cheeks. As Alya and Marinette came closer, Kagami’s neutral mask fell off, revealing a girl happy to reunite with her friends. They had a few minutes left before M. Dupuis would show up. Marinette almost let Alya keep in the background, as she and Kagami started to plan their next fencing lessons together — Kagami’s competition would be this week, of course, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t find the time to practice together— and shared their experience playing the games on their ever-growing list.

 

Nino looked more openly worried about his girlfriend when he joined the small group, he looked as though he knew more than Marinette about his girlfriend’s state of mind. And that was highly unusual. Not that Nino was dense when it came to her, but Alya normally told Marinette everything important about her, and sometimes even more than what Marinette needed to know. The conversation went on anyway, with Alya sinking more and more in her chair. At last, the teacher arrived and everyone went back to their seats. Today was a slow day, almost a sick day. 

 

No matter how hard she tried, Marinette could not focus on the lesson, her mind was too busy racing to different directions at the same time for that. First, Hawk Moth. He had been strangely silent these last few days, and she was almost sure he was planning something big. Then Alya. Marinette was having a hard time making sense of her friend’s behaviour, it worried her a lot. It all got muddled with her excitement of seeing Kagami after two weeks of only messaging her, and her feelings for Adrien. She wasn’t sure of what they were anymore and it only confused her further. 

 

She’d have to pay a visit to Master Fu soon, there was no way Chat Noir and her would be able to face whatever Hawk Moth had planned on their own. And it looked as if Kagami didn’t get along with the rest of the class. She hadn’t texted Adrien in more than a week and he hadn’t texted her back ever since he had answered her question about homework. And then there was Hawk Moth who still had to be taken care of. And Kagami. And Alya. Adrien. HawkMoth.Kagami.Alya.Adrien.Hawkmothkagamialyaadri—

 

Marinette snapped out of that spiral and forced herself to write the lesson down even though she didn’t really understand what M. Dupuis was saying. She was almost sure she had caught Kagami glancing discretely at her and it only added to her confusion. All in all, she was very glad when the bell rung. She could have used the opportunity to ask Alya what was going on with her on their way to math class, but decided against it. Didn’t they tell each other almost everything? Safe for the two of them being respectively Ladybug and Rena Rouge, of course, but that didn’t matter. No, Marinette decided, she wouldn’t press on the matter, if Alya had wanted to talk about it more openly, she would have done so. That, and Kagami seemed to have something to ask of Marinette.

 

“So… There’s that girl in _seconde sept,_ Marjane,” Kagami said, not quite meeting Marinette’s eyes. “And she’s working on a project about Greek tragedy… I told her you were really great at designing clothes and costumes so…”

 

“You really think so? Well… It makes me happy that you think so… But you’ve never seen any of my actual creations, I mean, safe for your scarf and some of my clothes, but these are pretty modern designs, I’ve never shown you…” Marinette added. She then fell silent for a few seconds as they walked to the math classroom. “Wait a minute, you found my blog?”

 

“I… might have.” Kagami was almost sheepish and Marinette couldn’t help finding it adorable. But the expression turned into something else, a spark of mischief lit up Kagami’s eyes. “I think that Chat Noir headband is really adorable. Are you a fan?”

 

It worked just as Kagami had expected, and she smirked at herself as Marinette spluttered and turned beet red. The blushing girl turned to Kagami and looked at her with faux indignation. Marinette mouthed an exaggeratedly mortified “how dare you” and finally giggled to herself when she saw her friend’s confused face. Oh, she needed to spend more time with her. She sobered up as they got to their seats and finally answered the question Kagami hadn’t been able to ask properly in the first place.

 

“I’ll be glad to meet Marjane and talk about her project with her! Thanks for mentioning me in that conversation, really, I appreciate that,” Marinette whispered to her friend as Mme Artigue started to talk about vectors. Kagami nodded and mouthed a small “At lunch, would that be alright?”, to which Marinette whispered a small “why not”. Kagami texted Marjane from under her desk, discretely enough so that the teacher wouldn’t notice. She was getting good at getting past everybody’s radars.

 

Once more, Marinette could not focus on the lesson and she tried to doodle to chase these intrusive thoughts of her. Three things happened during the class. The first was that she missed most of what the teacher told the class, which meant she would have to ask someone for their notes —Maybe Karim?— if she wanted to ace the test. The second one, she sketched a few designs she was quite happy with. And finally, she made up her mind as to her plan considering Hawk Moth. She’d go see Master Fu before the end of the day, be it as Marinette or Ladybug, they’d talk about the recent events, or rather the complete lack of Hawk Moth activities altogether, and see if they could recruit some more heroes and have Rena Rouge become a permanent member of team Miraculous. Also, she needed to find a new name for it. 

 

She was lost in her own thoughts, too lost to pay notice to Kagami rolling her eyes when a student gave the wrong answer to the question. Or maybe Marinette saw it, but decided not to take note of it. And roll her eyes, Kagami did. If only the class could end sooner… In Marinette’s bag, Tikki sneezed softly. Her Ladybug’s stressful thoughts could be very tiring for a small kwami like her.

 

Kim’s stomach made a pretty good impression of a whale’s song around a quarter to noon, and that was the sign that lunchtime was drawing near. At last, after what felt like forever, the bell rung and very hungry teenagers stormed out of the classroom without caring much for what the teacher had to say or their assignments for the next class. And once again, Alya was as distant as she could be without it seeming overly rude. It was made a child’s play thanks to the noisiness of the cafeteria, and to the fact that Marjane came to join them. And Marinette quite busy trying to follow what the girl was saying. The crowd was noisy but Marjane’s passionate voice made up for it. And Marinette almost understood everything. Almost.

 

“…and so,” Marjane said with a quiver of excitement in her voice as she ran a hand through her hair, “if we take in consideration that we now know that Greek temples were not pristine white buildings but that they were actually painted in many colours, sometimes quite garish ones, and the statues too… I think we should go with something colourful don’t you think? If you’re cool with that, that is.” 

 

Kagami had to suppress a grin when she saw Marinette nod with a frown. She looked quite lost with all these explanations. Marinette had the courage to ask more than a few questions and each answer got her more and more thoughtful. Even though the other girl didn’t make it that easy to follow, Marinette looked rather interested in what Marjane had to say anyway, and this alone was rather heartwarming for Kagami to watch. She completely missed Alya getting up and walking away from the table, not looking back. She disappeared in the crowd before Marinette or Nino could catch her.

 

Alya skipped school this afternoon, without telling her boyfriend and best friend beforehand. Not that Nino seemed that surprised, but he didn’t stop stomping his foot during the entirety of their history class, and it wasn’t out of excitement for the syllabus. Marinette knew that if he had known anything, he would have told her. Nino was quite secretive when he wanted to, but that wasn’t very often, and besides, Marinette could easily tell when he was lying. He wasn’t sure of what Alya was doing but he probably had a few guesses. And here they were, listening to the teacher drone instead of doing anything for Alya. A feeling of dread settled in Marinette’s stomach, and there was nothing to be done about it for now.

 

Marinette was relieved when the bell rang after two tedious hours, and though she hid it rather well, Kagami seemed to feel the same. Kagami was harder to read when she was in class than when she was around a smaller number of people. Marinette had almost forgotten about that side of her. Marinette excused herself and the two girls parted ways outside the classroom, Kagami would be going to the library to study before her fencing practise, Marinette was going home so that she could work on a personal project, or so she told Kagami. Nino decided to go home too — there was no Adrien to hang out with before his fencing class, and he wasn’t in the mood for anything school-related anyway. Nino and Marinette parted ways in front of lycée Carnot.

 

Of course, Marinette didn’t go home at all. Instead, she decided it was high time she paid a visit to a small man in his massage parlour. Talking with a man who knew everything she needed to know about how to save Paris could qualify as a personal project, no? Even after an entire year of being Ladybug, she still felt guilty about lying to her friends. These were half-truths, she reasoned, and it couldn’t be nearly as terrible as openly and completely lying to… About anyone, really. Paris was grey and dull that afternoon, but at least the rain had stopped. Still, Marinette hurried her pace.

 

The young Ladybug and the old man had a lot to talk about, and no one would disturb them. She had the feeling that the massage parlour would be empty and she was right. It seemed Master Fu had no customers this afternoon, at least no one waiting outside, Marinette noted as she approached the building. She hesitantly walked inside, her feet shifting to an en garde pose. The lights flickered, a strong smell of incense washing over her. What was Master Fu doing? It felt an awful lot like one of his many mysterious rituals he refused to tell her about.

 

She knew there was no use calling his name, he’d come and greet her soon enough, and so she sat down and took off her shoes. A few odd noises disturbed the silence of the building, followed by an equally strange chant. Marinette could make out Master Fu’s voice, and… Was it Wayzz joining him? She couldn’t quite tell what it was that they were singing, the language was definitely not one she knew, she was sure of that. Tibetan, maybe? The entire building pulsed softly, a small cloud of dust filled the air. Tikki winced inside Marinette’s bag but said nothing. The lights went out completely.

 

“Hello, Marinette,” a weary voice said.

 

Master Fu was wearing a ceremonial gown, a deep forest green cloth embroidered with golden symbols. Threads of silver light ran across the man’s entire body in an intricate pattern. The jade bracelet he usually wore was missing from his wrist. Marinette couldn’t shake the impression of déjà vu. A Ladybug must have seen something like. The old man knelt next to her.

 

“The ritual has worked rather well, I must say, and I should be protected for the next few days, even without Wayzz by my side,” Master Fu whispered weakly. He had never looked so old and tired.

 

“Are you alright?” Marinette asked.

 

“Yes, yes there is no need to worry. I think the time has come for Trixx and his master to meet again, but in case things go awry, I trust you with Wayzz as well, for a few days at least. I have the feeling that Hawk Moth’s next attack will be quite dangerous, and you should have all odds on your side. It will happen tonight, I am certain of that and you have to be ready.

 

“You’ll return the Miraculouses once this… Crisis is over, will you? Now you must go, I am expecting a guest very soon,” Master Fu said before Marinette could open her mouth, and he walked her to the door briskly, all but shoving two identical black and red boxes in her arms.

 

Marinette tried to keep her anger in check. Tried being the key word. Why did Master Fu have to be so secretive about everything, why did he keep things unexplained even though she needed to know? She bit the inside of her mouth to keep herself from yelling. Master Fu’s attitude was so… unlike him. Was he afraid? She couldn’t tell, but what she knew was that he wasn’t telling the whole truth and that was insulting. She felt like a fool, a mere pawn in his game, and it all left a bitter, coppery taste in her mouth. What a frustrating day that has been so far, Marinette thought to herself as she checked her phone for any new messages. 

 

Unsurprisingly, there were very few of them, Kagami was still at fencing practice, Nino was certainly busy doing… Nino things and Alya often replied hours later with excuses. Marjane had sent her a few links for the project. The girl sounded quite enthusiastic about it, Marinette noted. She was a friend of Kagami’s, which meant, probably a nice person. And Kagami had shared some things about her life without anyone asking her to. The small burst of warmth in Marinette’s chest stayed with her all the way to Alya’s flat.

 

 

 

 

Back in lycée Carnot, Kagami was bored and overall very frustrated with that fencing session. What was M. D’Argencourt thinking, pairing up with little Éloi? The kid’s footwork left, to say things politely, a lot to be desired, his lunges had even gotten more predictable during the holiday. If he kept up with it like he was at the moment, all he would achieve is— She parried the boy’s uncertain blade and riposted. He stumbled and fell flat on his back.

 

“Get up,” Kagami said cooly, not even bothering to remove her fencing mask. “I do not want you to waste my time.” Why couldn’t he just get it? She managed it just fine with her mother, she’d try and try until she found the solution on her own. The boy lacked training and discipline and basic observation skills. How Adrien had managed to bear with him, why M. D’Argencourt had decided to keep him, was a complete mystery to her. “Get up,” she repeated. 

 

The boy did as he was told, mumbling to himself though what about Kagami couldn’t hear. Having her train with him was a mistake. Had it been someone else, she could have been more patient. But after an hour at the library with Gustave trying to hide his staring at her from behind a book he had picked at random and what felt like an eternity of Éloi trying and failing to score a single touch against her…

 

Adrien’s voice, though slightly muffled by her mask, carried from across the gymnasium. Here he was, his own mask laying somewhere on the linoleum floor, discussing animatedly with the girl he was paired with. It appeared that she had managed what Éloi couldn’t achieve himself. Whatever it was they were talking about surely couldn’t help for Friday’s competition, could it? She had scored a touch, it was nice and good but that didn’t mean anything if she couldn’t repeat that. Training with Mother meant silence, repetition, exertion also, but more importantly results. What Adrien and his partner —was it Louise?— were doing was a waste of time, she thought.

 

“En garde!” Éloi yelled. That brought back Kagami to her own partner

 

She made short work of him once again, exactly the same way she had done before. This wasn’t even amusing. What was so hard to understand about a simple, well timed riposte? Or was it some basic footwork that he didn’t get? Adrien would have managed to escape it. And in a few months, so would Marinette. That kid was not worth her time, at all. He stumbled back to his en garde position, grumbling under his breath. 

 

“En garde,” Kagami said mechanically, not even looking at him. She could probably defeat him with her eyes closed, she thought to herself. With a flick of her wrist, she deflected Éloi’s poorly executed lunge and the tip of her sabre hit the boy’s mask without a sound. Nothing enjoyable about any of that, she ruminated, Marinette being there would have made practice so much better. “At least she is having a better day than I am,” Kagami mumbled.

 

 

 

 

Marinette was not having a better day than Kagami. She had arrived in front of Alya’s building. She wasn’t ready for that conversation but there was now escaping it now. She took a deep breath. It was time for Alya and her to talk. Her best friend had to be home, she had texted Nora to warn her of her arrival. It would be so easy. She had faced golems, giant babies and an akumatised Gabriel Agreste, a talk with Alya wouldn’t be so difficult. Besides she couldn’t do it over the phone, she knew it. Marinette’s hand hovered above the doorbell. It was just a talk, just a friend checking on her best friend. Easy. Just a button to push. She couldn’t do it. 

 

Tikki popped out of Marinette’s bag. They could do it together, even without a transformation. The little kwami pushed the human girl’s finger on the doorbell button labeled “Césaire” and zipped back inside the handbag. The entryphone spluttered, Marinette answered as clearly as she could. The massive entrance door opened at last. Marinette rushed in and climbed the stairs to Alya’s flat as silently as she could manage. 

 

Impressive, formidable, these were words that Marinette often associated with Nora Césaire. _Worried_ was not one of these words, yet it was exactly what the older girl looked like. If there was one thing about her that Marinette admired, it was her fighting spirit. Nora was a fighter, to a fault sometimes, but worry was never an expression the younger girl had seen on the older’s face as she opened the door to greet her.

 

“Come in,” Nora said softly. “I think she’s still awake.”

 

And so, Marinette walked to Alya’s room, slowly, reluctantly even. Getting there felt like forever. The door was ajar but no Alya to greet. Marinette took her time to push it open, carefuly, as if it was an akuma in the room rather than her friend. The fact that the lights were off probably certainly didn’t help. No use overthinking it all, Marinette repeated the mantra in her head, no use overthinking it all. She was here to talk with her best friend who had been avoiding her for weeks. She stepped inside.

 

The room was surprisingly tidy, even by Alya’s standards. Not that she was usually messy but everything seemed so tidy, almost unnaturally so. The complete lack of official Ladybug memorabilia was also striking. And there was Alya, lying on her bed with an unreadable expression on her face. She got up, closed the door, switched on the light and sat back on her bed. Marinette sat in the desk chair the way she’d always do. The two women locked eyes at last.

 

She had changed to a pair of baggy pyjama trousers and an equally large shirt that made her look even thinner. Alya’s makeup had barely concealed the bags under her eyes, but now it was painfully obvious. Marinette had seen her friend with a cold, she had visited her when she had caught the flu. This looked nothing like it. Her friend was not alright. Asking her how she was would be stupid. 

 

“You can let your kwami out, Marinette, there’s nothing to worry about, your secret is safe with me,” Alya said simply.

 

“Kwa— What are you talking abo—” Marinette’s eyes widened. Tikki flew out of her bag before her human could even finish her sentence and gave her an apologetic smile.

 

“Hi Alya,” Tikki said softly. “I’m Tikki, I’m sure Trixx told you about me.”

 

Alya nodded. “Before you ask, Marinette I think I always knew you were… _Her_ , but it took my meeting Trixx to fully realise it. That, and you’re really bad at hiding things from me. You should never have given me that miraculous, girl… Trixx, he… They call him the kwami of illusions but I don’t think the name’s right. He doesn’t play by the rules, he makes his own. He’s all smiles and laughter and kind words of encouragements, but it’s not just that.”

 

Instinctively, Marinette reached out for the Fox Miraculous and looked at its box with apprehension. Master Fu hadn’t told her anything about that, he had all but encouraged her to give someone she trusted that Miraculous then take it back when the danger was over. Did she do something wrong? “Did I—”

 

“This is not you we’re talking about, Mari, it’s me, and no I’m no longer mad at you for keeping it secret,” Alya said flatly. “Anyway, Trixx must have thought it was a nice joke to implement thoughts into my head without me knowing it. He must have found a way to access my memories, he must have guessed I wanted to know who you were and what you were planning to do, ‘cause he planted the thought in my mind and not just that.”

 

“And then I had asked you to give back the Miraculous and somehow Trixx knew it,” Marinette said in a low voice.

 

“ When you gave me the Fox Miraculous, when I turned into Rena Rouge…” Alya said. “No, when Trixx turned me into Rena Rouge… That felt amazing at first, even better than what I had imagined… I thought it was all I’d ever wanted to be. And I didn’t want it to stop. I think he knew we’d be separated, and he didn’t like it. The thing is, it had felt so great, too great, and I had to give up on it almost immediately after. Then you’d pop up as Ladybug every now and then to ask me to help you with an akuma, you’d lend me the miraculous, for what, an hour maybe? It didn’t feel like I had an use, like Ladybug… No, like you thought I was worthy of… Being a superhero too, I thought I was good enough but—”

 

“You are, Alya, you are good enough, the man who gave me the Fox miraculous made me promise that I’d return have you give it back to me whenever your presence was not required, he ever explained me why,” Marinette cut in. “It’s not your fault I had to take it back, it’s not what you did. And now that I know what… Trixx can do, I understand if you don’t want to see it ever again. I should have asked Master F… The person who gave it to me and I didn’t and I’m sorry I hurt you.”

 

“Trixx… He had been locked in his box for so long…” Tikki said sombrely. “I should have known something like that could happen. When some kwamis are left on their own for some time… The way they act with the new bearer of their miraculous… It’s so hard to explain in human terms…” Tikki frowned and flew around the room, reviving a potted cactus in the process.

 

“Marinette, we transform together, we work together, wouldn’t you say?” Tikki continued. “I keep a safe distance so that you don’t become… Addicted to the transformation, but I’m not too distant either. You’re as much in control as I am, we’re partner, right? I suspect it wasn’t the same with you and Trixx, Alya. I should have seen that coming… We have rules, it’s not like that fox is a rookie, he knew what he was doing and you’re not responsible for any of that… It’s not your fault.”

 

At that, Alya fell silent, her hands twitching. Marinette got up, pushed the chair back, took off her shoes and sat on the bed. She scooted closer to her best friend and remained silent. She put her arms around Alya’s shoulder. The red-haired girl turned to Marinette.

 

“Trixx he… I think he was the one in control,” Alya whispered. “I… Most of the things I did as Rena Rouge, I think he suggested I do them, I never thought about doing them differently… Being Rena Rouge was… amazing, everything felt exhilarating, maybe too much. Maybe it wasn’t just me.

 

“Once I de-transformed, it took a few days for the euphoria to wear off. And then everything became just so… Boring and annoying and dull, little by little, you know? Nothing is as exciting as it used to. Things I used to enjoy, they feel so bland now. At first I couldn’t find the energy to write articles for my blog but it was OK, I have a few bad days like everyone else. But it wasn’t just a few bad days, it just… Continued, I guess. Then my dreams got weird, I think Trixx’ll have some explaining to do… And I always felt restless when I’d wake up. Even eating, taking a shower or answering texts… It’s just too much. I’m just a terrible person to be around these days… 

 

“And I tried, I swear, I tried going out more often, I tried hanging out with you, with Nino, I thought keeping my room clean would be a good idea but I just… Can you believe that I had my mom and dad help me with my room? I’m not even angry, I’m not even sad, it’s like… Like I’m somewhere two centimetres behind where my body is. And it’s… I have an appointment with someone this Wednesday and I don’t know what will happen after that but it can’t get any worse, right? I’m not well now but it can’t stay that way forever, right?”

 

Alya looked at her lap without a word. A shiny purple moth flew into the room, its great wings outstretched, ready to land on Alya at any time. The room was growing darker and darker by the minute, the wind outside howling louder and louder. Marinette kept her eyes on Alya. The girl was shivering now.

 

“It… It can’t stay that way forever, right? Mari, I’m so scared.”

 

“Alya… It’s going to be alright, I promise,” Marinette said softly. She closed the gap between her and the cold, frightened girl and hugged her. “You’re not a terrible person to be around, you’re my best friend and I won’t let you call yourself a terrible person. I’d tell you if you were one. I’ve been a lousy friend, huh? I kept important things from you, and it hurt you. It won’t happen again, I’m sorry for that. I can only imagine what it’s been like for you these last few months and… Alya. I’m proud of who you are, and I’m happy you’re getting some help. I… Don’t think I can magic everything away, I don’t think I can help you that way, but… Well I’m here, alright? I’ll ask your parents if we can have dinner together soon, that sounds good to you?”

 

Alya buried her face in the crook of Marinette’s shoulder. Tikki switched on the lamp on Alya’s bedside table before she snuggled next to the two friends. The great purple butterfly flew aimlessly in the room without a place to land. Minutes passed by without either of the two girls noticing it. The butterfly’s light grew dimmer until it melted away without a sound.

 

“Alya, I think… I think Marinette will give Nino the Turtle Miraculous, would that be OK?” Tikki broke the silence. “We’ll tell him anything. I know Wayzz, he’s the kwami of protection and we can trust him, but we won’t give the Miraculous to Nino if you don’t want to.”

 

Alya simply nodded against Marinette’s shoulder, mumbling a “s’OK” before letting go of her friend. “You gotta leave, Mari, my dad’ll be here soon and he doesn’t need to know I skipped school. Nora can cover up for me but you’re such a terrible liar about stuff like that…”

 

Marinette felt her face heat up. She tried to retort but Tikki gave her a look that made her keep quiet. “I’ll keep you posted on that whole Nino thing,” she said before kissing Alya’s forehead. “I love you, Alya,” Marinette put on her shoes and jacket, and walked out of the room, Tikki now hidden in her backpack

 

And bumped into Nora. Had the older girl been eavesdropping all along? Before she could do anything, Marinette felt Alya’s strong arms lift her off the ground and pull her close in a bone-crushing hug.

 

“Thank you for everything, Ladybug,” Nora said, “and thank you for being Alya’s friend.” She put Marinette down, ruffled her hair. The doorbell rung and she opened the window. “Dad’s here early… You may want to transform rather than take the stairs. And thank you again for everything! Don’t worry, I’ll ask him to invite you over, even tomorrow you want. But now you go!”

 

Marinette transformed and noiselessly jumped out the window and climbed down the building as discretely as she could manage before turning back into her civilian self. She checked her phone and sent Nino a text to warn him of her arrival. Kagami’s (and Adrien’s) fencing class was almost over, so she sent Kagami a quick “I hope practice went well!”. She kept herself from waiting for an answer even though she really wanted to. She had to give Nino his Miraculous in case something happened in the next days. Whatever it was, Ladybug would be ready to face it.

 

 

 

 

In his lair, Hawk Moth looked at his assistant with a mixture of anger and fear. What was she thinking, trying to use that  cursed Miraculous? And it had been all for nothing, he hadn’t been able to akumatise the girl in the end. How the little Dupain-Cheng brat had managed to thwart him without even noticing it, he didn’t know, but she had done just that. And now Nathalie was coughing repeatedly, her legs shaken with spasms. Nooroo did not look too good either. Why couldn’t things just go his way for once? He de-transformed. 

 

Adrien would be back from school soon. His son did not have to see Nathalie like that. With Gorilla waiting for Adrien, Gabriel would have to drive Nathalie to the hospital himself. The Miraculouses could wait, just this time. He’d reschedule his attack for another time. 

 

He’d just have to find the right receptacle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir!
> 
> I hadn’t updated this in quite some time, and I missed it. According to the text file, I started writing this chapter on May 28th 2018. Which feels like an eternity ago. 
> 
> So what happened then? Many things, some of them more pleasant than others, I got very busy with life, university work (dissertations are great but time consuming things) and some other projects including music for short films and other projects like that, and a video game idea and some other texts. So here is a long one to make up for it.
> 
> I’m not really a fan of the direction _Miraculous _has taken even though I can understand why these decisions were taken, and I find canon Kagami (and her mother even more so) quite boring and I quite dislike all these canon!Kagami plot lines. Heh. I’ll probably write a long Tumblr post about that, or maybe put it in my next chapter’s notes.__
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> _So what will I do now that I have said all of that?_  
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> _I’ll keep my original plans for this fic, add some things from canon if I think they work with what I have written this far (I have a few chapters that I need to work on more seriously but they mostly ready)._  
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> _I don’t think there’s much that I need to explain about that chapter… The thing about Greek temples is true, and hopefully we’ll see more of Marjane in the next chapters! And Adrien too! And Itsuko! And hopefully not Trixx._  
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> _Follow me on Tumblr[here](https://algernoninwonderland.tumblr.com), I post previews for the incoming chapters there (sometimes) and I sometimes post writing tips about France and other stuff, I wrote a post about food “recently” (in February) that can be quite useful [here](https://algernoninwonderland.tumblr.com/post/182920125601/writing-tips-food-in-france-an-overview). Ask me stuff if you feel like it, I’ll answer as soon as I can, if I can!_  
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> _Am still a baguette, so mistakes were not intentional._  
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> _À bientôt!_  
>  _


	11. Duel 11: Qualifications of a Duelist: Reprise (1)

Friday had come much faster than Kagami had imagined, but that didn’t matter much to her. Nothing really notable had happened in the last few days, Alya still wouldn’t answer the text she had sent her on Monday, no akuma attack had occurred in more than a complete week, something very rare. Adrien had been to the library more often, coincidentally when she and Marjane were there, even though he hadn’t seemed to have any kind of homework to do. No, not a very eventful week. Besides, Kagami had dedicated most of her efforts towards training, she had kept herself from staying up too late to read or play. She had even made an exception to her habits: she hadn’t played the cello at all and had used that time to stay longer at practice, though she had continued writing in her Paris journal. She felt ready for the hours to come.

 

And getting ready for that competition meant that she should and could sleep for much longer than she would on a regular school day. Her mother had phoned lycée Carnot, and Marinette would give her the notes for the classes she had missed, so there was nothing for her to worry about. She’d be there after classes were over, just in time for the interesting part of the competition. Kagami managed to wake up on her own before her alarm could force her out of bed. Yes, today would be great, it would be her first real competition in France after. She wouldn’t let her guard down, of course, but she knew she had fair chances to win. She would make everyone proud, including herself.

 

She rubbed her eyes, stifled a yawn and walked out of her room. No looking at your phone, she told herself, you don’t want to let yourself be distracted, she told herself. She went to the bathroom, splashed water on her face. She looked… Incredibly ordinary, calm, well-rested and collected. Mum had prepared her well, she mused. A few years back, she’d have been an anxious, sleep-deprived mess. But these days were behind her. Sure, there was still some stress, but nothing she couldn’t manage. Kagami didn’t bother combing her hair to prevent it from sticking in all directions, she’d have time for that later. Mum wasn’t there so she wouldn’t say anything about her daughter still being in her pyjamas with a bed head. Kagami made her way to the kitchen. 

 

She turned on the radio. To her surprise, she didn’t have to tune it to France Musique that morning. She took her time to eat her rather hearty breakfast — rye bread with apricot jam instead of her usual white bread and strawberry jam, but still her good old cup of tea. Kagami followed through with her schedule for the day. She would have to prepare an outfit for after the competition once she got back home, something elegant that would work with the weather. For now, she chose some clothes for the warm-up session and put them in her kit bag. Now is not the time to be on your phone, even if you want to read Marinette’s — or anyone else’s— texts, she told herself once again, you have an alarm clock if you need to know what time it is.

 

Kagami brushed her teeth and went back to bed to read. Her alarm woke her up this time. She took a quick shower, washed and combed her hair at last, got dressed, picked up the kit bag in which she had all that she needed for what was to come. Just as planned, she was ready as exactly 11 o’clock. The competition would only start in about four hours so no hurry, she repeated for the twentieth time that day, but M. D’Argencourt wanted his fencers to be there hours before the beginning so that they could train and warm up. The first phase of the competition would be a team effort after all, only after that, and if they managed to win that round, would she have the occasion to truly shine against capable fencers. Being there in early was exactly what she would have done on her own anyway. 

 

She found a small paper bag in front of the door, next to her shoes. with her lunchbox already packed in it. She was sure she’d fine a note from her mother inside. Kagami smiled to herself, put on her duffel coat and her shoes. She made a mental check-up one last time. Clothes? OK. Phone? In her coat pocket. Water flask and lunch? In the paper bag as well as other things to eat. Keys, wallet and everything else? In her coat as well. And the scarf Marinette had knitted for her wrapped around her neck as always. Everything was the way she wanted it to be. Perfect. She made sure to lock the door behind her as she walked out of her apartment. 

 

 

The crisp November air hit her face as she walked down rue Troyon to the Charles de Gaulle Étoile metro station. She was in for a good half hour of “commute”, if she could even call it that. But it was nothing to be stressed out about, she reminded herself, she would be able to worry about not winning once she got to Gymnase Elisabeth Kagami still had quite some time. Was it three hours and fifty minutes now? She waited for her metro and since there was nothing else to do, she checked her phone at last. And was surprised at the number of messages she had received. She deleted Gustave’s and read the other ones slowly, taking her time. Besides, it was a thirty minutes ride. 

 

 **From:** Marjane K.

 **To:** Me

 

_I might come but not sure yet_

_Keeping my fingers crossed!_

 

In the same fashion, Kim had sent her a “GO GET’EM TIGER” followed by an ungodly amount of emojis. Kagami hadn’t expected him to send her anything but it was a nice surprise, it certainly made the trip easier. The train she needed to take arrived at last, she even found an empty seat. That would be the perfect place to continue reading her texts.

 

 

 **From:** Nino L.

 **To:** Me

 

_hey! good luck for your competition! ill be there with Marinette & maybe Alya to watch you kick some arses_

 

She certainly hoped so. She knew Nino was equally interested in Adrien’s performance, but it was always nice of him to cheer for her too. Unlike most of the fencing team when Kagami and Adrien dueling against each other. Maybe she wouldn’t kick arses but at the very least she’d try to, as long as it followed the rules. 

 

 **From:** Aiko

 **To:** Me

 

_You’re going to do great!!!! Also Taneda says hi and shares my mind :p_

 

 **From:** Taneda

 **To** : Me

 

_You’re going to  b l o w  their minds! Aiko thinks so too, also she says hello ;)_

 

She must have looked weird, smiling at her phone in that overcrowded, smelly carriage. Still, these messages were exactly what she needed, especially in the metro. Of course, Father hadn’t bothered sending her words of encouragement but she hadn’t expected him too. What she had expected, however, was a message from her paternal grandfather and he didn’t disappoint.

 

 **From:** Tsurugi Ando

 **To:** Me

 

_Hello, granddaughter_

_My wife and I hope you do well. Do not dishonour our name._

 

Well, grandfather Ando always had this grand idea of the Tsurugi prestige, but taking it this far… It was ridiculous, outdated even. His decision to change his surname to that showed how grandiloquent he could be. At least he seemed committed to being a living, talking cliché and had always been that way for as long as Kagami could remember. Maybe he’d never change. At least his daughter had toned it down, if not for that terrible signet ring though she suspected that wasn’t her idea. Well, grandfather Ando wasn’t here to tell her what to do. Besides, the other messages from her family sounded much better. 

 

 **From:** Grandmother Kiyo

 **To:** Me

 

_Hello dear,_

_Do not worry about what your grandfather wrote, I am sure you will do well!_

_I hope to hear from you soon._

 

 **From:** Mum

 **To:** Me

 

_I hope you’ll enjoy lunch. Text me when you’re here!_

_I will be there before the competition starts._

_Do your best! I love you_

 

This was exactly what Kagami needed to read. And it made the rest of the trip — a change of train at Montparnasse, followed by ten minutes of horror in a cramped carriage with barely any room for her bag and her legs at the same time — that much better. She had saved Marinette’s text for later, but she could barely move her arms, let alone reach for her phone. She mentally cursed in every language she knew to make the situation somewhat more tolerable. Not that it concretely helped in any way but it did make her feel better.

 

At last, she got out of the terrible thing at Ports d’Orléans. That entire trip had felt like half an eternity if not for the messages. Still, she was here right on time, even a little early. She looked around her, but found no familiar faces. Out of all the competitors she knew about, she must have been the first to get here. Kagami walked out of the métro station and checked her phone for directions, even though she knew exactly where to go. Traffic was quite dense and Parisian drivers were impatient as always. And so, Kagami read Marinette’s message at a pedestrian crossing, with cars zooming right and left.

 

 **From:** Marinette

 **To:** Me

 

_Heyyy :)_

_hope you slept well!_

_i’ll try to be there as soon as i can_

_you’re the best, Kagami!_

 

Kagami all but floated all the way to Gymnase Elizabeth, her feet barely touching the worn out concrete. There was no denying it, Marinette was someone special. She had a hard time keeping herself from grinning. Now, how could she make her understand that she liked, liked her? But that would be a question for another day. Her bubble of giddiness burst. She had reached her destination at last. 

 

 

Gymnase Elizabeth did not look particularly impressive, with its dirty and austere grayish facade and its burgundy steps. Cars were parked all around the place, and she recognised M. D’Argencourt’s old Alpine among them. She’d see him after lunch, she decided. The car Adrien’s butler drove was nowhere to be found, perhaps Adrien would be there is a couple of minutes. Kagami had seen very little of him outside of fencing practice, now that she thought of it, he had kept in touch with Nino but with the rest of his former classmates, not so much.

 

He’d be there, sooner or later, she thought. Hesitantly, she pushed the heavy doors of the Gymnase and walked inside. That was it, then. Without waisting a second, she went straight to the locker rooms, following the conveniently placed sign. Yellow door, her fencing instructor had repeated, you don’t want to find yourself face to face with the students you’ll compete against. Seven other teams from all over the region… But she would only have to face three of them, if things went well. 

 

Kagami found herself alone in the surprisingly clean locker room. There was plenty of room for four people, and a corridor which lead to showers. Her fencing gear and sabre were there, without a single scratch on them, lined up next to those of her three other… Teammates, she supposed she had to call them that. She knew she had been chosen, but M. D’Argencourt had only revealed the names of the team meant to represent this fencing circle two days before the actual competition. She’d be with Adrien, Vincent who had supposedly improved greatly, and the girl Adrien had worked with that other day, Louise. But none of them were here just yet. 

 

 

Thirty minutes and one empty lunchbox later, Kagami greeted her fencing instructor on top of the terraces, wearing her workout clothes and a perfectly composed face which the man failed to mirror. He looked nervous and proud at the same time. He hadn’t been in that position, watching his students compete, in quite some time, or so he told her. The gymnasium and its wooden floors looked nothing like a proper fencing area yet: down the terraces, workers busied themselves but the result of such efforts had yet to be seen. They traded a few words about the competition, and more importantly the competitors. It came as no surprise that M. D’Argencourt despised most of the older fencing masters, though he was curious about the newcomers. 

 

“Oh, I do not worry about our team at all, dear,” he said loudly as a grim looking man wearing a lamé passed by. And in a lower voice, he added for Kagami, “Boisse, that two faced… Let us hope he won’t make a scene this time. Back in 1997, he… But I shouldn’t be talking about that, we have better things to do.” 

 

The gymnasium looked more and more like a fencing area by the minute. So M. D’Argencourt and his student discussed fencing tips and strategies as discretely as they could, but soon they ran out of things to talk about. At least he didn’t try to talk about how blue the sky was for a November day, Kagami wrote in her Paris journal that night. 

 

“Will you be recruiting new students next year? Students my age, I mean,” Kagami asked.

 

“Well… I must admit I have not made up my mind yet. I like the way my school looks like now, and I only take those with the most potential, not that I want to make Olympics champions out of you all, not yet at least. I might do the same thing I did last year, a small competition to see who is worthy. Perhaps you had someone in mind? ”

 

“I… Marinette Dupain-Cheng is a fast learner and… A student of mine, if I can call her that.”

 

“She was the girl pining Adrien, the one who came to watch your rematch all these months ago, wasn’t she?” M. D’Argencourt said with a hint of mockery in his tone. At that, Kagami visibly tensed. 

 

“If you are the one training her,” he said more neutrally this time, “I do think she will join you in regular practice next year… If she is as good as you think she is, of course, but I trust you have an eye for that sort of thing. Well, the team should be there anytime soon, you should get a little rest before it all starts.”

 

 

Well, that certainly wasn’t awkward at all… Kagami allowed herself to doze off in the locker room. She woke up with the noise of the door opening and Louise, Adrien and Vincent coming in dressed in their workout clothes. She greeted them, trying to sound as friendly and relaxed as she could without it sounding fake. And she was quite relaxed, in fact, much more so than her teammates. Louise seemed mildly nervous, Adrien had his model smile on, which was not a good sign, and “twitchy” was the best word that could define Vincent. 

 

“So, I guess we gotta warm up now,” Vincent said shakily, running his hand through his always perfectly gelled hair. “I mean, it’s what he asked us to do, no?”

 

He was met with three identical nods. Without a word, the small team fell into a routine of warm up exercises, a routine which proved to be quite beneficial. When they walked out of the locker room wearing their fencing gears, they looked much more relaxed, much more self-confident than the four teenagers who had walked in that very same room half an hour ago. Adrien truly behaved like a proper team captain now. There was determination in their steps, and it did not waver when they arrived in the gymnasium. The terraces were crowded now, with familiar faces from fencing practice. Adrien spotted Itsuko Tsurugi before her daughter did, and Kagami nodded at her with a faint smile. 

 

Most of their competitors were already there, scattered around the gymnasium, practicing on their own before it all started. The D’Argencourt Team (they couldn’t come up with a better name) introduced themselves to the referees before they practiced as well, though they toned it down, to save their energy and so that they wouldn’t give away how good they were. Somehow, it made Kagami trust Vincent and Louise a little more. The judges, on a small platform, had a perfect overview of the fencing salle, but she didn’t pay too much mind to them. A referee came to inspect their gears and sabres. He gave the fencers a satisfied nod before he left. 

 

 

An amplified voice called their names, and it was the signal Kagami had been waiting for, for almost a month. The competition had just begun. Her mind shut down all sources of distraction around her. There were four pistes, each with its set of referees, and on a small platform above the bleachers, the jury, composed of other fencing masters Kagami knew to be her mother’s colleagues, had a nice overview of everything. Kagami followed behind her teammates, wordlessly. They would fight in order, first Vincent after which came Louise, then it would be her turn, or Adrien’s since they hadn’t decided who would be the alternate here. Not that she minded much. All they had to do was to score touches, as many as they could. She’d be there to rectify her team’s mistakes, she told herself.

 

Kagami looked at her opponents for this series of matches. They didn’t look all that impressive, three boys and one girl, obviously ill at ease. It was probably their first competition ever. She stared at them, regal. Vincent readied himself, Louise readjusted her lamé over her lanky shoulders and tugged her chignon at the back of her fencing mask. Adrien gave his team a small smile (I’ll go first, then it’ll be your turn if that’s OK with you, he told Kagami) and a pat on Vincent’s back as the boy stepped inside the piste. The referee uttered the words. 

 

“En garde! Prêts? Allez!”

 

Saying that M. D’Argencourt had prepared his star students for this would have been an understatement. M. Jondrette’s students didn’t stand a single chance against them. Half and hour later, four very discouraged fencers stepped out of the competition. Kagami had to admit, Vincent had come a long way since their encounter in June. Louise, who usually kept in the background, was much faster and stronger than her lanky frame suggested. Had Kagami paid attention to Vincent and Louise, she would have noticed that their fencing instructor had spent more time with these two than with the rest of his students lately. His choosing them should have been quite obvious. Adrien had been as good as she had expected him to be. Her own performance was adequate.

 

Kagami didn’t feel too tired, this first round had been yet another sort of warm up to her. Her fencing had been efficient, almost effortless. But she didn’t expect to keep it that way for ever. She took one last sip of water from her flask, stole a glance at the terraces again and spotted a black-haired girl followed a boy with a red cap trying to find their seats. No distractions, she reminded herself. She still waved at the terraces hoping that they’d notice her, before putting her fencing mask back on.

 

 

 

“Dude, I told you we didn’t have to run, we didn’t miss anything too important, Kagami and Adrien are still in the competition” Nino rasped, slightly out of breath. “Is that… Is that her mum? Hey look, there are empty seats next to her, maybe we should go and sit there?”

 

“I… Don’t know,” Marinette whispered. “Nino, I’ve only met her like, once, wouldn’t it be a little awkward if we just popped up and… Well never mind, she saw us.”

 

Itsuko Tsurugi greeted her daughter’s friends with a slight smile that did reach her eyes. Marinette and Nino discretely joined her, formalities were exchanged (“Marinette! It is nice of you to be there! Oh, and you must be Nino, a pleasure to meet you!”) and the two teenagers sat next to Kagami’s mother who was watching her daughter again. The D’Argencourt Team was facing M. Boisse’s students now, and they were much more of a challenge than their previous opponents. 

 

Marinette couldn’t help but wince when Vincent lost four consecutive touches in a row, his footwork becoming more dreadful with each passing minute. Louise tried to do better, but she barely had the upper hand, and she looked relieved when it was Adrien’s turn to face his opponent. Adrien briefly turned to the terraces, looked at Marinette’s right — she turned her head to see Gabriel Agreste himself, sitting next to M. D’Argencourt— before he put on his fencing mask. He barely looked at Marinette and Nino, but to Marinette’s surprise, she didn’t mind. Kagami seemed too focused on the competition to record Marinette’s presence, at least for now. 

 

It was no secret that Adrien had been M. D’Argencourt’s star pupil for some time, and it was hard not to see why. Even Mme Tsurugi looked at him appraisingly at first. It was true that every new touch he scored was a delight to watch, at least for most people who weren’t M. Boisse or his supporters. Though she couldn’t have explained why, Marinette could tell by his body language that he was confident, but slowly getting tired. Which was weird, because she had never seen Adrien do anything that would leave him exhausted in her entire life. 

 

There was no obvious sign of Adrien’s exertion, however. He never allowed his opponent, one Rémi Maulet, to get the right of way, each of his attacks were unpredictable, cat-like, yet perfectly timed. and was almost exuberant in the way he seemed to purposefully get close to Rémi’s sabre without ever letting it touch him. There was no tension to the bout. 

 

Marinette let her eyes wander around. In the gymnasium’s other half, Mme Legrain’s students were crushing M. Doisnel’s. In the meantime, Vincent and Louise were drinking and chatting with Kagami though the girl didn’t seem to be a very active part of the conversation. When Adrien walked out of the piste and unclipped his body cord, the scoring box had not blinked a single time for Rémi. Not that the boy had been a bad fencer, their bout had lasted for quite some time, but Adrien had simply outdone him. Rémi didn’t seem to be a sore loser, however. The two boys shook hands, exchanged a few words before they bowed to the terraces.

 

“Yes Nino, your best friend is really good. But he put on a show for his father… It’s not a catwalk, it’s a fencing piste. He could have saved all this energy for later,” Marinette said softly. A few months ago, she would have been blown away by Adrien’s performance, but with Kagami teaching her, she knew better. Nino seemed thoughtful for a moment. He glanced at Gabriel Agreste and shrugged.

 

Itsuko Tsurugi nodded at Marinette appraisingly. The referee called Kagami’s name, and the girl went on his right. Vincent had asked to rest and Kagami had taken his place. Her opponent, a boy named Léo Fontaine, strutted to the referee’s left. The two fencers checked their materials, making sure that the scoring box worked well. They shook hands, or rather, Léo tried to crush Kagami’s hand, before they stepped back, right behind their respective on-guard line. Itsuko’s grip on her scarf tightened slightly, but Marinette barely noticed. She had her eyes on Kagami and Kagami only. 

 

 

 

“…Allez!”

 

 

The scoring box blinked red as soon as the words left the referee’s mouth. All Kagami had needed to do was extend her arm before Léo’s sabre came in line. His lunge had been sloppy at best, Marinette noted, and it was quite clear that Kagami would remain defensive for most of the fight if Léo kept making it this easy. And the boy made it ridiculously easy. Kagami moved as little as she possibly could, anticipating her opponent’s every action as if he had spelled them out himself in painstaking detail before executing them. Léo’s lunges and remises were fruitless, and the boy did all the moving.

 

Not once did Kagami need to beat his sabre out of line. Léo’s attacks became more and more desperate, and more dangerous as well. He finally scored a touch, catching Kagami’s lamé with the back of his blade, but it seemed like an accident more than anything. Léo refused the one minute break the referee offered him. He looked so… Puerile, like that. The sort of kid who would get angry if he didn’t get what he wanted immediately when he wanted it. 

 

Kagami was much faster than her opponent, and much more confident too. She didn’t need to strut to look powerful, she didn’t have to punctuate her attacks with screams to actually win anything. Léo managed to hit her lamé again, at the same time her sabre touched his. “Simultané, pas de touche,” the referee called. Léo audibly groaned and Marinette shook her head. 

 

Just two more touches and Kagami would have won against him. Unless things went poorly with her teammates, they’d compete against Mme Legrain’s students. Louise looked as though she had recovered and Adrien was sitting cross-legged doing breathing exercises. Yes, they seemed ready enough, Marinette thought. 

 

Being on the defensive was starting to get boring, so Kagami tried something Marinette recognised immediately. She slammed her feet to the ground, extending her sword arm slightly. Léo reacted too slowly and Kagami continued her attack, scoring a touch again. The training had paid out, Kagami’s feint had worked just fine. The tip of her blade met her opponent’s sword arm.

 

One last point, Come on, Kagami. Léo lunged at his opponent, faster this time, but it wasn’t enough. Kagami’s sabre grazed his and scored the hit. That was it, then. She had won this bout without losing her calm. Perhaps things would have been different with another opponent, Rémi seemed more level-headed. The team would only need seven more points and they’d be sure to make it to the final. Kagami didn’t seem let that temporary victory go straight to her head. She outstretched her hand for Léo to shake, but the boy refused to shake it and started arguing with the referee. After an awkward minute, Léo begrudgingly did as he was told.

 

“Unbelievable,” Itsuko Tsurugi scoffed as M. Boisse got up from the terraces to talk to the referee. Though Marinette couldn’t hear what they were saying exactly, the conversation was cut short, the balding fencing instructor walked out of the gymnasium angrily with Léo. The boy could have been disqualified from the competition for such a behaviour. The rest of the encounter was tense to say the least. Rémi and his teammates fought with newfound vigour but it proved fruitless. 

 

Louise scored the last points the D’Argencourt Team needed with great efficiency, and M. D’Argencourt clapped loudly when she parried a particularly sneaky cut from her opponent and riposted immediately after. After that, it was only a matter of having the best score possible. Though M. Boisse’s team wasn’t completely demoralised, it was obvious that they weren’t trying their best: the first bouts had been enjoyable to watch, the following ones not so much. Marinette couldn’t even remember the name of these fencers outside of Rémi. 

 

 

“Well, that was underwhelming…” Nino said once M. Boisse came to collect his pupils. “Is it just me or that team composition was terrible? I mean, look at the guys on the other side of the gymnasium, M. Doisnel’s students are still gonna lose but at least they don’t throw a tantrum when they do, and it’s not like they only have one and a half decent fencer and the rest of the team is just… Meh… I mean, they’re not great but at least they all have roughly the same… Level, if that makes sense to you.”

 

Both Marinette and Kagami’s mother looked at him, impressed. Nino had never struck Marinette as a fencing enthusiast, and there he was making completely correct assessments about team compositions. 

 

“What? My friends are fencers, your daughter’s gonna be an Olympic champion someday, so it’s normal for me to read about what they’re doing. And I’m writing film about fencing, so I guess I did my homework,” he said sheepishly.

 

M. Doisnel’s students did lose against Mme Legrain’s in the end, and the jury took it as a cue for a much welcome thirty minutes break. The gymnasium became very noisy in very little time, with people moving in all directions. Marinette waited for M. D’Argencourt to finish his briefing with his students, though from where she was sitting, it looked more like he was congratulating them and giving informal advice than a proper, serious briefing. At last, the fencing master walked back to the terraces. Itsuko Tsurugi did not move from her seat to meet with her daughter, choosing to chat with M. D’Argencourt and Mme Legrain instead. 

 

Marinette and Nino, on the other hand, rose to their feet, hoping they’d join their friends. Yet it seemed that the other students from the D’Argencourt Academy hadn’t gathered around their champions, to leave them some space to breathe and rest, probably. Louise had vanished, and Adrien was a sweaty mess, Vincent and Kagami were chatting calmly. Perhaps leaving them alone for now would be a good idea. Still… Marinette waved widely at the team, and so did Nino.

 

 

Kagami saw this, got up and waved back with a smile on her face. Marinette didn’t need to know she was trying not to grin too openly and make a complete fool of herself. It seemed Nino had stopped wearing that bracelet, she noted. Too bad, it had suited him quite well… Marinette had opened her bag and was scribbling with a black marker on a sheet of paper. She held it over her head and Kagami had to squint her eyes to see what the girl she definitely did not have a crush on had just written. 

 

“GO, KAGAMI, GO!!!!” it simply read, accompanied with a crude doodle of Marinette giving a thumbs up. It was absolutely silly. And endearing. So of course, reading these words filled Kagami’s chest with warmth. If that was even possible, Marinette’s smile grew even wider. And it was contagious, it made her want to run to Marinette and hug her close even though she knew perfectly well she wouldn’t be able to gather the courage to do that. Fortunately, before their staring contest got too awkward, the rest of the D'Argencourt Team started moving to the locker room to freshen up. Kagami simply mouthed a “I have to go now” and followed behind Vincent. She had to get ready for that final, yes. Freshen up, stretch up some more maybe. She really wasn't sure she'd win the next series of bouts, but she'd do her best.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonjour, bonsoir!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed that kind of tournament arc! The final will be quite something. I tweaked the rules quite a bit but it'll be justified later, trust me on that (please do!), it's not entirely gratuitous.
> 
> When I finished writing the original chapter 11, I noticed it was twice as long as the longest chapter I've posted for this fic, so I decided to split it into two parts and so here we are. When will the second half be uploaded? I don't know yet, probably in two weeks? If things go well and I'm not completely overwhelmed by my finals.
> 
> Even after 7 chapters, Kagami still can't stand the Metro, and neither can I. Lots of fencing terminology! But we've discussed all of that in the previous chapters. 
> 
> Trying to create some sorts of character development when the main point of view for the story is a kinda self-centred, kinda scornful teenager is hard! Especially when said teenager only notices some things and completely ignores (and despises, to a certain extent) most others things, and arguably most people who are not Marinette or her friends.
> 
> If you want to watch a show which features good realistic fencing scenes (though not only and that's the point), watch Utena. Hell, even if you're not particularly into fencing, Utena is a great show, and a personal favourite, the way I name my chapters come from there too. I'd suggest going in blind. And if you're from Americaland, Nozomi has made the anime available on their YouTube channel, both subbed and dubbed (though the dub is not very good). Miraculous borrows a lot from Utena and doesn't execute what it borrows half as well as Utena does. There's also a movie, but I suggest you watch it after the series, otherwise it doesn't make as much sense.
> 
> I tried to explain why the Tsurugi name was what it was, which is to say ridiculous and a cliché and almost as bad as naming your character, let's say, Cho Chang, but I'm not sure that worked well. Kagami's father has lost both his parents, it's not that they're as bad as their son and don't care about their granddaughter. Or maybe they're terrible people? I don't know, interpret that lack of message the way you want, I'm not here to tell you how to read my story.
> 
> As always, my Tumblr is [here](https://algernoninwonderland.tumblr.com) if you want to ask me questions, tell me how great a writer I am or if you want to be informed about the other things I do, the other fics I post and very soon the music I make!
> 
> I am still very much French, the mistakes I make are not intentional and I'm quite sorry about them…
> 
> I'll see you in the next one, in the meantime, take care!


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